


Robertson and Peabody

by Ch4plinfan



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Demisexuality, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 00:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16545680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ch4plinfan/pseuds/Ch4plinfan
Summary: Nyralina Robertson secures housing with a family friend, Hog Eye of the Whyte Wyrm, and cuts ties with both the Ghoulies and her former foster parents. She uses her newfound freedom to delve into the world of the Southside Serpents and fall in love with a friend that she was never allowed to acknowledge, Sweet Pea.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghoulie-adjacent foster kid, Nyralina Robertson, secures new housing with a family friend, who’s also the owner and bartender of the Whyte Wyrm, Hog Eye (Eli Hoggins).

“I don’t know what to do, Eli. If I stay with the family I was placed with, I will end up in prison or dead and if I leave, the state might decide to put me somewhere else and I’ll leave everyone I’ve ever known,” I said combing my hands through my short hair anxiously. I needed a place to live and had come to a family friend for advice, hoping to air my concerns and achieve some measure of clarity by doing so. He pulled his face, contemplating something and then his eyes popped up to my face and he threw me a half-smile.

“I don’t know how comfortable you’d be with it, but- here, follow me.” Eli walked toward the end of his trailer and threw a door, that I’d only ever accidentally opened, open. He gestured at the space, filled with boxes and Southside Serpent attire/paraphernalia, and said, “It’s yours if you want it, Nyra. I can get it cleaned out and move-in ready this weekend.”

I thought about his offer for a few moments. It was the last thing I had thought he would say; it had crossed my mind once, but I never thought it would cross his. It would be perfect. I could stay with the closest thing I had to a family member, a man that I knew and trusted. I could stay at Southside High without any issues. I could also work on limiting my contact with some of my friends, who had recently shown signs of going down a path that I wouldn’t follow.

“I would really appreciate that, Eli. Thank you.” I said finally, watching his face pull into a smile. He locked me into a tight, long embrace and for the first-time in a long time, I felt like hugging back. This favor seemed more enticing by the minute, until I realized that I would have to track down my belongings from my friends’ homes and home of the foster couple, which meant going back.

“I’ll get started on it when I get home from work tomorrow then. You need the couch until it is all set up?”

“Nah, I can stay at my friend Jasper’s until then. I don’t need to entirely mess up your system here.” I said, snatching my bag from the floor to grab out my phone. I went into the bathroom and texted Jasper.

Me: Yo, I need your couch tonight, tomorrow, and maybe the day after and then I’ll be gone.

I got an immediate reply, which wasn’t a surprise considering how close Jas was to his phone literally all day.

Jas: Sweet see ya when ya get hur

Me: Thanks, man! XX

Jas: Anything for you baby XX

I laughed at his pet name for me. He knew I hated them and yet this one endured. When someone is friends with somebody long enough, one will eventually latch on to something the other hates just to screw with them; this was Jas’s choice of my pet peeves.

I shook my head in disapproval and looked into the mirror. The face staring back was haggard and the bruises from my most recent beating made my skin a yellowy-green. I pulled at my short hair and got it divided into my signature part, but I still looked a little crazy. Lately, I imagined myself as a plucked chicken going around and picking up her feathers, trying to hold them still in a harsh wind as she sticks them haphazardly into their places on her body. I snorted at my imagery and then wished that the wind would calm for a while so I didn’t feel so naked, afraid, and alone.

Eli pulled me out of my reverie when he knocked on the bathroom door to ask what size of bed and desk I wanted. I came out of the small bathroom and crawled as far as I could into the storage room. I judged that it would be just large enough for a full mattress and a small, homework-friendly desk. He agreed and made a note of it on his phone. I figured he’d ask the Serpents if they had any hand-me-downs that he could use and improvise if they didn’t. Eli was known for being pretty handy with zip-ties and milk crates.

“I should get to Jas’s before it gets dark and I know you need to be heading to work soon.”

“Alright, well I’ll text you when it’s ready and you can come over and tell me if I need to change anything,” he said, looking around the cramped space and making a rather bewildered look. “No one has lived here with me in a long time. It’ll be weird to have another person’s schedule to take into account.”

“If it is too much trouble, it’s really ok. I can figure it out without going back to that house.” I watched the color drain from his face and he turned to look me in the eye. Before speaking, he closed his eyes and took a very large, noticeable deep breath.

“No, you will never go back there, even if I need to give up my bed to prevent that from happening. You can’t be around those people and I have space to offer, once I make it.” He reached his hand out and brushed a fallen hair off of my shoulder. “I should have stepped in sooner. I’ve watched you grow up and I know it isn’t what she would have wanted for you.” A sad smile crossed his face that shifted into a grimace. I collected my thoughts and tried to alleviate the tension that had grown around us.

“I just appreciate that you stepped in at all. It is weird to think of her having had a life before the one she had with me,” I said, trying to avoid opening the volatile can of feelings I’d stuffed down for the last eight years. “I’ll see you around, Hog Eye. Let me know as soon as the room has a mattress. The rest doesn’t need to happen right now. I just need to claim my crap from all of the nebulous places I have left it. And the sooner the better on that.”

“Ok, will do. I will see you in a couple days!”

“Thank you again, Eli.” I slipped out his door and into the September rain. I felt really accomplished as I drove to Jasper’s Southside apartment; I had solved the most pressing issue plaguing my existence and thought I might even sleep through the night.

As I walked into the building and up the stairs, I smelled the distinct stink of subpar weed. I knocked on Jas’s door, but when no one answered, presumably because of the volume of the TV blasting Rick and Morty, I checked the door handle and found it unlocked.

“Jas, it’s 9 o'clock on a Wednesday. How the hell are you already fucked up?” I asked the skinny, half-naked young man writhing on the ground in his typical mid-high fashion.

“Well, that’s my secret, baby. I’m always fucked up!” Jas said, standing and planting a sloppy kiss on my cheek. I looked around and saw that a few of his Ghoulie friends were over. I felt a second-hand high from the hotboxing going on in the apartment and walked toward the kitchen to crack open the windows. I squatted and rested my arms at the low, shallow window ledge, breathing in the fresh, wet air. I wondered if I should have stayed at Eli’s for the night instead of getting myself into the mess that I knew would happen if I stayed.

That brief musing was over when I felt a familiar hand on my shoulder and heard its attached body plunk down into the chair next to me. I turned and saw that Axel had made his way over to me from the couch, which I thought was impressive considering the couch-lock that his friends seemed to be experiencing. If I’d diverted his attention from the boob-tube, I’d obviously done something extraordinary.

“Hiya, Nyra. How is your evening going thus far?” Axel said, smiling his intoxicatingly handsome smile. I smiled back and then turned back to the window taking in long draws of the fabulous smelling, mold-infected air.

“It would be going better if I could get my homework done and go to sleep on time tonight,” I stopped and looked at the couch, five butts pressing themselves into my bed for the evening. “But I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.”

“We can go to my place if you want. I have some calculus to get done.”

“I don’t know, Axel. Last few times we were alone together, we made things weird.” I said, feeling some residual discomfort around the unfortunate hookup a few days prior that ended his most recent relationship.

“Think about it anyway. Jas is so high he won’t know where the fuck he is for most of the night. You know it doesn’t slow down on hump day.” Axel stood up, patted my back gently, and made his way toward the door. “I’m heading out. I have homework to do. See you losers at school.” He announced to the room. His friends waved him out and he slipped into the hallway. Shortly afterward, I felt a buzz in my pocket.

Axel Rose: I would really love to have you over. We don’t have to do anything if you aren’t down tonight. I am chill with a hw sesh

I looked around at the drug-addled teens watching the magic box and imagined my night if I stayed at Jas’s; I didn’t like it. I knew I was too tired to drive back to Sunnyside, so that was out too. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do homework and enjoy Axel’s company for the night. Really, what was the harm. We were both single now and we both figured that it was no one else’s business how often we hooked up.

After the episode of Rick and Morty ended, I grabbed my things, left Jas’s apartment, and went downstairs to Axel’s place. I knocked softly, in case his mom was home. When Axel came to the door in a towel, freshly showered, I found myself hoping that neither of his parents were around.

“Nyra, I kinda figured you weren’t gonna make the trek down here. Come on in,” Axel said, pleasantly surprised by my intrusion to his evening.

“Did I miss the homework part?” I said, closing and locking the door behind me.

“No, most definitely not. I just wanted a shower to get my head in schoolwork mode.” Axel turned mid-sentence and began picking things up as he spoke. Beer cans, dime bags of various substances, and cigarette butts were littered around his house.

When Axel was home regularly, he cleaned up after his parents obsessively. But as he’d been away more and more recently, the house was a disaster. Axel was especially bothered by the mess. His anxiety was directly related to the cleanliness of his environment.

“The parents away?”

“In Sandals Jamaica this week. Supposedly.” Axel responded as he kneeled on the floor with a brush and dustpan to clean up a dish of fallen ashes. I figured he was really anxious and worked up about something because I couldn’t seem to divert his attention from the ashes on the floor.

I sat on the edge of the couch and tried to engage him in some discussion, but he was too focused on the ashes. I looked around at the other messes he’d feel compelled to clean before he could do anything else. I sighed and decided to sleep with him. It’d get him into sleep mode and I really wanted to sleep.

I checked the time on my phone; it was 10:30. We could wake up early in the morning and finish the homework that neither of us felt like getting to tonight. I set my bags down by the door and grabbed out my outfit for tomorrow. While Axel was getting every last particle of ash out of the scuffed and crooked linoleum, I popped into the bathroom to brush my teeth, since I knew that he’d already done so. I went back into his room and plugged my phone in by his bed. I checked to make sure he had condoms in his bedside drawer and then remembered to set my alarm for the morning. I looked down the hallway at him sweeping and knew that I would have to do something drastic to break his focus.

I stripped down to my bralette and underwear. Then, I walked back into the living room, kneeled beside Axel, and grabbed his hands in mine. “Do you want me to help you clean or can we go back to your room for the night?”

He smiled and gently placed the dustpan and brush on the ground. “Let’s go.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra leaves Axel’s apartment after a discussion about the night before and meets her new lab partner to make up a lab. Lunchtime trouble with the Ghoulies ensues.

When I woke up the next morning, I slipped out of Axel’s bed, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, relieved myself, and sat at the kitchen table to work on homework. I had about 45 minutes and knew that was all I needed. Nothing I’d been learning this year was complicated, but I hated proofs with every fibre of my being and Mrs. Churchill had spent exorbitant time on them.

A little while after I got up, Axel joined me at the table, pulling his math homework out as well. “Thank you for last night,” he said, meeting my eyes before looking back at the intervals he was working with. “You were serious when you said you don’t get anything out of sex, weren’t you? I mean I was doing some of my best work trying to- you know.”

I laughed quietly and said, “You mean I was serious when I said that I am pretty sure I fall more on the asexual side of the spectrum? Yes, I was serious.” He frowned. “I am glad what we did together made you feel better though, I really am. I just- I don’t feel that way for you or anyone else right now.”

“Didn’t you say you get turned on by celebrities and stuff? Is there something I can do to make you feel that way for me?”

“It isn’t what you do or look like, Ax. It’s about what I feel for you. And I don’t have romantic feelings for you, so I don’t crave you.”

“Ugh, why do you have to be so sexily complicated? Like in every sense of the word.” He joked, faking desperation. We laughed and I thought about how easy getting along with him had been in the years I had known him. I trusted him like a brother, thought of him as my best friend, and screwed him when I felt that he needed it.

It was simple in my head, though apparently Axel was starting to have questions about the nature of our arrangement. I expected nothing less from the polyamorous, pansexual that I sat next to. He was one of those people with too much love to give. I might have been willing to be one of his partners, but I felt like I needed to continue to protect my heart. I also knew that I needed to pull back on how much I was seeing him. He was a weekend runner for the Ghoulies and I didn’t want to be caught up in that life.

“So what classes do you have today?” Axel asked, trying to start a conversation. He had a really annoying habit of being unable to sit in silence, even if it felt comfortable. I didn’t know if it was the fact that he was never comfortable with silence or if he just liked talking.

“I have a make-up lab in first with my new lab partner, since Karen decided to drop bio, then geometry, bio, and finally art.”

“What useless asshole did Leakwell assign you to now?” Axel said as his eyes flitted over his homework, checking his accuracy. I was always impressed with how easily complex math and science theorems and methods made sense to him. I envied his skills; proofs wouldn’t be kicking my ass if I understood why they mattered.

“This one isn’t bad, so far. He does his own work and I haven’t had to do any hand-holding; though it has only been a week.”

“So this one isn’t a loser? Give him some time. He’ll show his true colors. Leakwell has it out for you.” Axel said. He stood up from his homework and grabbed some water from the kitchen. “You might need to hurry if you’re bussing today.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll see if he starts to suck at school soon enough. I appreciated that he was willing to make-up the lab with me today. He didn’t have to and he really did me a solid,” I said, feeling oddly protective of my long-time secret friend. I started to pack up my things. Axel agreed that I could leave my clothes at his place, but advised that I take anything of value to school with me.

After I got to school and passed through the metal detectors, I hurried to lab. I was a few minutes early, but my lab partner had still beaten me to the work bench. He looked up from the lab notebook with cheap plastic goggles obscuring his otherwise handsome face. His long, black bangs couldn’t make their signature curl on his forehead because of the goggles and I thought that he was almost unrecognizable without his leather skin. I then joked with myself about how grateful I was that he had his Serpent tattoo on his neck for easy identification.

“You’re almost late, Robertson.” He said with a feigned gruffness. He sat back on the stool and crossed his flannel-covered arms over his chest.

“Almost being the operative word there, Serpent.” I said, setting my stuff in the designated area and grabbing the least foggy/scratched pair of goggles that I could find. I found my seat next to him and opened my lab notebook to the experiment.

This lab was more of a skills test than an actual scientific exploration. We were using pipettes and were tasked with mixing different colors of solution onto a palette and if we got the colors right, we could pass to the next phase of the skills lab with the microscopes, which was infinitely more exciting than what we’d been doing probably all year. An underfunded school led to a lackluster education and we were in the middle of it.

“Do you feel slightly insulted by the lab notebook?” I asked, reading the instructions a third time in Leakwell’s voice.

“Yeah, for sure. They don’t expect us to be able to add solution one to solution two in the right amounts to make red-orange. That’s too complicated for our simple minds.” He said. Afterward, he added a curt laugh that showed me his frustration was equivalent to mine, though I was better at hiding it.

As if on cue, Leakwell made his way into the room and loudly threw stuff around in his office before he came out to take attendance. He looked at Sweet Pea and I, scrutinizing our lab set up to find something he could berate us about. Of course, he found nothing, which I was almost positive would be worse for us in the long-run.

“Well, about a third of the colors we’re making aren’t straight from ROYGBIV, so it’s a challenge to know what to do with ourselves,” I said. We laughed quietly as a couple other students came in exactly with the bell to make up the lab too. One of them was my burnout ex-partner, who’d apparently re-enrolled in bio, and the other was one of the nerdy kids from Sweet Pea and I’s math class.

I laughed at myself for making the distinction of it being Sweet Pea and I’s class, since we had the exact same schedule this year. He sat with the Serpents when he had a choice, so I didn’t interact with him very much during art or gym. However, English, history, geometry, biology, and Spanish had assigned seating and we were placed near each other because of our last names being so close alphabetically. I honestly liked seeing him everyday because we’d been friendly since we shared three classes in Freshman year. He wasn’t rude or argumentative with me and he kept to himself as much as he could. He seemed to do the bare minimum for participation, but I knew who he really was as a student.

Sweet Pea was a very intelligent guy, though he didn’t let most people see that through his aggressive, impulsive façade. The man he conveyed to others had whittled down over time when we’d been paired together for assignments until he was just a quiet, thoughtful young man with a lot on his plate. I imagined that if I wasn’t so entrenched in dealings and friendships with the Ghoulies, Sweet Pea and I could actually become really good friends. I hoped that I’d be able to test that theory soon, since I was planning my way out of the Ghoulies. There was too much going on with them for it to be safe for me to hang with them anymore.

“Ooh, look. A yellow-green. We’d better call the art department; we found a new hue.” Sweet Pea said, lightly bumping me with his elbow. I winced a little since he’d elbowed an aged bruise. He must have seen that because he quickly said, “Woah, sorry. Didn’t mean to- sorry.”

I shook my head and said, “Crayola probably already has it copyrighted as ‘pea green’. But that means you already have your name on it.” I bumped his elbow back. Luckily I’d chosen a time after he had pulled color into the pipette, which avoided assured tragedy.

“I’m a lucky man. I already have a crayon named after me,” he said, looking around for Mr. Leakwell before he continued. “'Sir, you cannot use crayon on your application to Yale.’ 'Yeah I can, it’s named after me. It’s only right to use my most prestigious accolade to apply to your fine institution.’” Sweet Pea nodded his head along during his fake conversation and used his most stuckup voice for the Yale rep.

I laughed and said, in my best South Park Cartman impression, “I’ll apply to your fine institution anyway I want to. I do what I want.” Sweet Pea conciliated me for my poor impersonation with a breathy laugh. He then stood and handed me the pipette so I could do the other half of the colors.

“Somehow I think between the crayon and the entirety of my resume being Member of Southside Serpents 2014-2020, I wouldn’t get in.”

“Eh, you never know. I mean think of the originality alone,” I said looking at him and squeezing the solution onto the contact paper. “Besides,” I continued, pulling the second color to add to the first, “You write a paper as well as you wrote that one for English on Of Mice and Men and Yale will be throwing you so much money you won’t know what to do with it.” I felt and heard Sweet Pea shift and when I looked over at him, he was staring back at me.

“You liked that paper?” He seemed surprised that I had thought of it at all and even more that I could’ve found what he had to say intriguing.

“I really did. I thought it was beautifully written and it was so wrought with drama and thoughtful criticism, I imagined that even Steinbeck would appreciate it.”

“Robertson, Peabody, less talking, more piping,” Leakwell barked. We sat working in silence until Leakwell dipped back into his office.

“Yeah, I’ll pipe you, Leakwell,” Sweet Pea said, before realizing what an awful innuendo he’d made.

I gasped, “Sweet Pea! How dare you not tell me you wanted Leakwell. It makes so-” He jabbed me in the side and I squeezed blue water all over the table. “Damn it, look what you made me do.” I chided him, before laughing when I saw that he thought I was serious.

When we stopped laughing, I set the pipette down and turned to him. “Sweet Pea, I wanted to thank you for skipping bio and agreeing to do the makeup with me.”

“Of course, Nyra. I wouldn’t have come to school looking the way that you did either.” He stopped and swiveled toward me on the stool. “You aren’t still living there, are you?” His concern was palpable and I couldn’t help but feel good that he thought of my well-being.

“No, there were some really recent developments that I’ll have to tell you about later.” I smiled at him and the heat from my cheeks fogged up my goggles, which of course led him to poke fun.

Sweet Pea and I messed around all period, but we managed to finish all of the paperwork, including the pre-lab, that neither of us had done, and the post-lab which was supposed to have been our homework from last Tuesday. We turned everything into Leakwell and left the lab with enough time to make it to geometry in the hall farthest away from the science lab.

We found our respective seats and continued to pass inappropriate jokes, looks, and words well into the next period. Mrs. Churchill had given up on trying to teach us anything valuable earlier that month, and it was only the second month of the school year, so I asked her at the beginning of class what our homework was. 

When she wrote it down, Sweet Pea and I got to work on it, ignoring her lecture and piecing together how to do the homework using both of our brains. After we finished the assignment, we waited out the clock by playing hangman. Sweet Pea was a terrible guesser; he kept picking the most obscure letters. I took it easy on him by drawing leather jackets and boots on the stickmen he so hastily hung. It was fun to hang out with him, but I knew that the time would come sooner rather than later and we would have to go back to pretending we didn’t know, care about, or acknowledge the other.

When lunch finally rolled around, Sweet Pea and I went our separate ways, even staggering our exit from the classroom. I sat with Axel, Jas, and the other Ghoulies, but I kept sneaking glances at the Serpent corner of the cafetorium. The last time, I caught the gaze of Sweet Pea’s scowling face, though his brown eyes had a modicum of warmth when they met mine, and I decided to quit while I was ahead. None of the Ghoulies had noticed my actions thus far and I didn’t want to take the chance of putting a target on Sweet Pea’s back. I’d let him do that for himself.

“Nyra got paired with the Giant in bio. It’s disgusting that the staff can’t keep those slimy people with their own,” Demetri said, scoffing in the Serpents’ direction.

“I’m not even a Ghoulie, Dem. Leakwell didn’t mean anything by it. It isn’t some slight against the dead-heads,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation before it became something it wasn’t.

“What bad luck, Nyralina. That fucktard is definitely dumber than Melanie’s retarded brother,” Pistol Pete said, starting an uproarious laughter at the expense of too many other people for me to let it slide.

“I’m sorry that you can’t handle that Mel dumped your worthless ass and feel like putting people down will make you feel better, but the Giant and Simon are off-limits for jokes. Get some fucking new material.” I rolled my eyes at Pistol and continued to eat my pretzels.

“Are you going soft on me, stone-hearted bitch?” Pistol snickered, coming around the table and setting himself directly behind me. I turned around and stood barely half a foot from him.

“I don’t like racist, sexist, ableist, little-pricked assholes to talk about people that they don’t know.” I heard the other Ghoulies urge me to go on and I shot a smile at Melanie before saying, “As for Simon, he is amazingly gifted in architectural design and you feel that pointing out his disability will make you feel better about lacking all but the smallest extent of that kind of talent. So much for following in your uncle’s footsteps, you talentless loser. I mean you can’t even draw a straight lamppost.”

I dropped my eyes to his crotch and slowly dragged them up to his face until I finished with, “But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised given what you’re working with for inspiration.” The Ghoulies went nuts with laughter and Melanie, Axel, and Jas stood up behind me to make sure that Pistol didn’t try to retaliate in any way. He stepped back and sat down at the table. We all laughed and made more jokes at his expense before selecting a new target, who’d spoken up and said some offhanded sexist thing to me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra gets out of school early and asks for a ride from Sweet Pea to her car. She tracks down her stuff where she left it and revisits the horrors of her foster home. Slight supernatural element is added (will be expanded upon in later chapters).

When biology lab started, I was excited to sit in relative silence and look at dyed cheek cells under the microscope. We all settled into lab and did our pre-lab worksheets while people set up their stations. Sweet Pea and I were in the back row, so we started the lab last. We had no problem catching up though; we worked so well together that before we knew it, we were putting the microscope and materials away.

“What went on at lunch today? I saw you and Pistol. Looked like his was looking for a fight.” Sweet Pea asked quietly, clenching his jaw slightly. I saw his hands roll into fists and release a couple of times.

“He was just being his usual asshole self. Decided to insult you and the brother of his ex in one fell swoop. Her bother’s autistic and there is only so much that his sister can handle guarding him from. I decided to take him down a notch. No big deal.”

“Didn’t you guys go together for a little while last year?”

“Yes and no. I was kind of down to hang out with him, but he has an inability to accept the word ‘no’. I refuse to be with anyone who doesn’t respect my boundaries.” I looked at him and he nodded, letting a peaceful silence fall around us.

We finished the lab and post-lab early, so Leakwell let us go. Sweet Pea and I went our separate ways and I decided to see if I could go home early. I checked in with the art instructor, Mrs. Simpson, who said if I was done with my chiaroscuro piece, I could go home for the day. I checked what I had done on Tuesday and decided it was good enough for a grade.

As I was about to leave, I got a text from a new number.

Unknown: Hi Nyra. It’s Sweet Pea. I don’t think you have my new number. Dropped my last phone in the toilet. :(

I smiled, added him to my contacts, and got an idea for what to do with my day. I called Sweet Pea and he answered hesitantly.

“Hey, I don’t know if you’re sick of seeing my face or not, but I’d like to go to the Wyrm. You willing to give me a ride?” I asked, hoping that he would agree to see me after school.

“Why do you want to go to the Wyrm?” He asked, his voice starting to echo as I walked outside toward where he was sitting and reading. I hung up and sat down across from him.

“Remember when I said that my housing situation had some developments? Well, Hog Eye offered for me to stay with him. I wanted to check with him in person and make sure he was still down.”

“Oh, that’s awesome actually. Alright. Let’s go.” Sweet Pea packed his book away, stood, and walked with me over to his bike.

My phone rang. I saw it was Jas and looked at Sweet Pea apologetically before answering.

“The fuck are you doing with that giant right now? Do you know what you’re doing? I have to tell them.” I looked around for where Jas was spying on me.

When I didn’t see him, I said, “Mind your own damn business, asshole. I have some business to take care of and I don’t want to walk.”

“You get seen with him, you’re out with us. All of us. Axel and I can’t afford to be caught hanging with a Serpent Slut.”

“Fine, Jas. I guess I’m out then. Fuck off.”

Sweet Pea looked at me and smirked. “Friend of yours?” He reached his hand out to help me climb behind him.

“Not anymore, I guess.” I stopped and asked, “Can we actually drive to 3rd and Sweetwater? I need to pick up my car and some stuff before it disappears. I can do the Wyrm later tonight.”

“Ooh, I dunno. That is really not a good area for me.” Sweet Pea ran his right hand through his hair, biting the inside of his mouth.

“You can drop me at the closest spot if that would work for you. I just can’t afford to lose my stuff.” I felt anxious, but I knew if I waited until the bus came, my stuff would be gone and my car would be trashed. The Ghoulies worked quickly when they wanted to make a point.

“I’ll drop you at your car and take off.”

“Thank you,” I said, slinging my leg over his Harley. “By the way, and not in any attempt to butter you up, I love the color of your bike. I like pretty much anything that is kind of industrial looking and your girl here ticks a lot of those boxes.”

“Thanks, I like her too.” Sweet Pea said, starting his Harley into action, purring and ready to go.

Sweet Pea took me to my car and I asked him to take my backpack, with all of my valuables, computer, jewelry, cash, and meet me at the Wyrm. I told him that if I wasn’t there in an hour and a half, he could assume that he could tell Hog Eye not to bother with the room.

“Be careful and I’ll see you soon.” He said before speeding off into more Serpent-friendly territory.

I ran into Jas’s and Axel’s apartments to grab my belongings. I stood in front of their locked doors, thought about unlocking the handles and the deadbolts and found that the next time I tried each door handle, it was unlocked. I hurried through their apartments and grabbed my things. Back in the respective hallways, I imagined locking the doors and heard the deadbolts shift into the locked position. I smiled at myself having proved that I was still improving with my gift.

When I was back in my car, stuff stowed on my floorboards, I checked the time. The foster house would be empty, so I drove there.

I parked in the back alleyway closest to the door, in case I needed a quick getaway.

I found that my key didn’t work on the newly replaced locks, so I unlocked the back door the way I had in the apartment building. My fear got in the way of my focus, so I found the process of shifting the deadbolts and locks significantly harder, but eventually I made it inside. I gathered and stowed anything in my car that I thought I could use or want. They’d trashed or thrown away everything of mine in the week since I’d last been there, so I felt entitled to anything I wanted. I took anything of value, cash, small electronics, and jewelry, that I could find.

As I was leaving, I remembered the safe beneath the floorboards in their bedroom. I pulled the rug back, pried the floorboards up, and tried to pull the safe from its place in the crawlspace. It was too heavy to pick up, let alone carry, on my own, so I took some deep breaths and calmed my nerves. I closed my eyes and imagined walking the large, cumbersome cube from where it sat under the floor in their room, through the living room and kitchen, down the steps to the backyard and into the large, open space that I imagined I had made in the back of my car. I envisioned myself covering the entire heap with a tarp and closing and locking every door to my car except for the driver’s side.

When I opened my eyes again, the safe was gone. I’d heard it scuff against the floorboards on its way out and knew that it was likely at least most of the way in my car.

I checked on my car through the kitchen window and found it closed and covered exactly how I’d imagined it. I then kneeled in the middle of the living room and thought of all of the things that the foster family had said and done to me. I thought of how small and inconveniencing they’d made me feel. I thought of the ways that they both had touched me and the delight that they seemed to get out of watching each other doing so.

Finally, I thought of the night I left them. How the man had held me down while his wife had beaten my body. How the man had switched places and fucked me while I was trapped under the woman’s strength choking on my own aspirated blood. I remember thinking that the TV could fall on her and the grandfather clock could fall over and trap him, allowing me to get up and get away. Then it happened. She was crushed by the massive television and he was trapped under the giant, oak clock. I pulled my arms and legs back to me, coughed a pool of blood onto the floor, grabbed my “go bags” that I’d had packed weeks earlier, and left.

I had never imagined I’d return, especially not alone, but the house was empty and I was victorious. They’d never know it was me. They couldn’t, because I didn’t leave anything I’d touched with my hands. I laughed as I stood. I threw my middle fingers in the air and turned my back on the house and my captors forever. On my way to the Wyrm, I sent a package to the state child protective services that detailed everything they’d done to me and everything I’d seen go on in that house. I hoped that as incompetent as the government was, they’d take my photographic evidence and written testimony as proof of the couple’s inability to house a child.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra gets moved into Hog Eye’s trailer with the help of Sweet Pea.

The Whyte Wyrm’s parking lot was well lit for a shitty dive bar, though I assumed that the people that patronized the bar really appreciated Eli Hoggins’s commitment to making their vehicles safe. I backed in to a spot, close to the bar’s entrance, and entered, looking for Sweet Pea and Hog Eye. I found Hog Eye behind the bar and he smiled at me as I came over.

“Hey Hog Eye,” I said, trying to act as calmly as I could, despite my wavering voice and trembling hands.

“Nyra, are you alright? You look drained. Here, drink this.” Hog Eye handed me a glass of orange juice and I gladly accepted it. He was right about feeling drained. The amount of mental energy I’d consumed unlocking the doors and putting the safe in my car had left me ragged. I felt fine on the drive over, but as soon as the last bit of endorphins from my fear had run out, I felt the full force of what I’d done to myself.

“I’m alright. I had to get my things from that house and from the Ghoulies’ places since they cut me out today. I guess I made too many waves.” I didn’t mention that I had called Jas back and told him to tell Malachai and Pistol that I wanted out. I implored him not to start anything with the Serpents and he’d agreed. I knew he’d keep his word, but I worried that anyone else saw me on Sweet Pea’s bike.

“Well, I wish you’d let me come to that house with you to get your stuff, but I am glad to hear you’re out of the Ghoulies. I worried what would happen to you if you lived with me and they found out. My couch is open for you, though I need to work more tomorrow, when I’m off, to get your room in better order.” Eli took the empty glass and filled another with some water.

“Thank you again, Eli. I really do appreciate and I know that she would too.” I said, watching his face fall briefly before he smiled and nodded. “Have you seen Sweet Pea around by any chance?”

“He’s in his usual ‘there’s no one here to hustle in pool’ spot, over there playing Mortal Kombat.” He turned and grabbed some coins from his register. “Take these and go beat him. If someone can, it’s you.”

“Aye aye, Hog Eye.” I saluted him and slowly walked over to the tall, lean young man that had turned around when he heard me ask about him. He stood and pulled me into an unexpected hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him back. I felt him shake a little and I wondered what it was about. “Hey, Sweets. Thank you for waiting.”

He pulled away enough to look me in the eye and said, “You went back there alone? Why didn’t you call me? I would have come and backed you up.”

“I couldn’t put both of us in danger. They’re Ghoulies and I figured I’d see if the house was empty from afar before I went in. It ended up fine.” He shook his head and broke the embrace, grabbing my bag from where he’d set it on the side of the game console.

“Here. I think I’ve played enough for today.” Sweet Pea was curt and wouldn’t meet my eyes. When he went to grab his coat, I reached out and stopped him. I placed myself between him and his skin and took a deep breath. He looked confused and tossed his head up from its formerly downcast position, crossing his arms.

“Sweet Pea, I’m not playing any games with you. I didn’t use you to get out of the Ghoulies and if I hadn’t gotten a ride to my car, it would have been trashed. I didn’t take you, or anyone else, to the house because I knew that they threw all of my shit away the second I left their house. I wanted to steal anything and everything I could from them and I didn’t want to implicate you in that.”

He raised his eyebrows and smirked. “Get anything good?”

“I’m not sure yet. Are you willing to meet me at Hog Eye’s and empty my car into his place? There’ll be pizza and anything you want from my spoils in it for you.” I looked at him and hoped he’d agree. Not so much for his help, because I knew I could get everything inside myself, but for his company. I really liked his company.

“Alright, Robertson. Let’s go. But remember that you said anything.” We laughed and I drove to Sunnyside with Sweet Pea in my rearview mirror, until, of course, he got tired of my law-abiding driving, passed me, and sped off.

“What took you so long, four-wheeler?”

“It takes longer for those of us with extra wheels to get around. Fuck off.” I laughed, opening up my car. I suddenly remembered that I’d forgotten to ask Eli for a key, but I played it cool, imagining the key that had been for the house fit into and unlocked Eli’s trailer. When I tried it, the door opened right up.

“Wow, Hog Eye must mean business if you have a key already.” Sweet Pea sounded surprised and I knew that it was a long-shot that Eli would have given me a key.

“He happened to mention an extra when I was last here and offered it to me.” I watched his face to see if the lie worked and when he nodded, I felt safer. We hauled in the safe and the stolen stuff first. Then we emptied my car thoroughly into Eli’s front room. For it being everything I owned, I didn’t feel too shabby about the amount of space I took up. From Sweet Pea’s comments, he seemed surprised that this was all.

“What’s in the safe?” He asked after we’d gotten everything neatly stacked in one side of the room.

“I’m actually not sure. I just knew it was there because I’d hidden from them in the crawlspace earlier this year. Let’s find out.” I sat cross-legged in front of the safe. I put my fingers on the dial and closed my eyes. I thought about the man opening up the safe. I imagined turning the knob the ways that he had and before I knew it, I heard a click and a pop.

I opened the door and found the safe full of money. Euros, American cash, Canadian bills, all of them rolled and bound with a label marking their amounts. I smiled at Sweet Pea who settled on the floor next to me. I handed him two bundles and said, “Thank you for everything today. This and whatever you pick is yours.”

“Nyra,” he started, placing the money back into the safe and scooching closer to me. “I did all that today because Fangs told me that if I wanted to actually call you my friend, I needed to see you outside of school. That’s why I texted you and why I helped you move in. Not for the loot.”

I looked down and smiled. I had an active imagination and was improving at moving things just by thinking about them, but this was the first development that I was surprised by. I scooped all of the money back into the safe, shut the door, and turned toward Sweet Pea. He’d been silent since his confession and I could see the lightest touches of red in his face.

I reached my hands up to his face and held them there. I looked him in the eye and tried to think of a way to tell him how much I appreciated him and that I’d always wished I could call him a friend. Then I decided to just say it, to be honest the way he had with me. I dropped my hands into my lap and began.

“I’m glad you did. I’m sorry if you texting me makes things bad for guys with the Ghoulies, but I am glad that you were willing to give me a shot. It was getting to a point for me too where just seeing you at school didn’t feel like enough time.”

“Jeez, Robertson. Seeing me in every class wasn’t enough for you? I know I’m handsome but come on.” He laughed lightly and took one of my hands in his. We sat for a few moments in a pleasant silence, before I heard his stomach gurgle.

“Let’s get some pizza ordered and figure out what you want to take from my stash.” I grabbed my computer out of my bag and ordered a large pizza combo. I assumed that he ate with the voracity that my other friends had. He stood and walked over the the bin of electronics.

“Toni would love this camera.” He sorted through more of the bin. “Fangs would love this PSP.” He looked through the whole bin, deliberating on every piece, and settled on the camera.

“If that’s for Toni, go ahead and take the PSP and games for Fangs. Then grab what you want.” He smiled and set the camera, lenses, cords, and the camera bag I’d found, aside for Toni. I packed the bag while he grabbed the cords and games for the PSP. He sat down after he found them and looked at me. “Aren’t you going to grab something for you?”

“Will you come to a party at the quarry with me tomorrow?” He asked so quietly that I almost thought he hadn’t said it at all. I looked back at him with my mouth kind of agape and was about to answer when we heard a knock on the door.

I checked through the blinds, out of habit, to see who it was. A skinny white kid with pale blonde hair, who also worked at the Twilight Drive-In, was standing with a large pizza box and a two-liter Coke. I opened the door and tipped him with a twenty. I set the pizza on the table and saw that Sweet Pea was hunched over with his head in his hands. I felt bad for having left him hanging, but couldn’t help but smile at how hard he was taking my non-answer to his invitation.

I sat on the edge of the couch next to him and ran my left hand through his hair slowly. “I would love to go to that party with you tomorrow.” I said it as quietly as he’d asked and he looked up from his hands. His mouth was in an inadvertent pout and I felt an urge to kiss him. The feeling surprised me, since I couldn’t remember ever feeling that way before. I brushed my thumb over his right cheekbone and kissed it gently. As soon as my lips brushed his skin, I wanted to do much more with him. I resisted doing anything further; neither of us were going anywhere.

“Alright,” I said, standing and grabbing plates out for the two of us. “Let’s eat, because it’s getting far too late to be this hungry.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra gets a ride to school and then gets a ride home, under two entirely different circumstances.

Fridays were the worst days of the week at school. Because of the block schedule, we had our even period classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and our odd period classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Rather than alternate every week from an odd day to an even day on Fridays, they decided to cram all eight periods into one day. Of course that was also when teachers decided to make things due and to hold exams.

What made this Friday suck even more was that I missed the bus because I hadn’t thought to check with Eli if he knew when the bus came for students in Sunnyside. I had to walk the over three miles to school in the rain, skip, or risk driving my car into a lot where Ghoulies were waiting. I chose the walk and got ready to go.

I was brushing my teeth and getting my unruly hair into some semblance of order when I heard a knock on the door. I spit out my toothpaste and saw that it was Sweet Pea. I opened the door and let him out of the rain. His hoodie under his leather skin was soaked and he looked a little cold.

“Morning. What’s up?” I said, beckoning him to follow me to the bathroom so I could continue to get ready.

“I wanted to offer you a ride to school. I figured you might need one since you don’t know that the bus comes almost twenty minutes earlier here than it is scheduled.”

“Makes sense why I heard it leave me behind this morning. And thank you for not bothering to mention that last night,” I frowned and he shrugged. “I would very much like a ride. I was lamenting the walk already and I hadn’t even finished brushing my teeth.” I looked outside at the rain and thought about the party I’d agreed to go with him to. “Is the quarry still happening?”

“I haven’t heard otherwise. Rain’s supposed to clear up by lunchtime.” He looked at me with a hesitant smile. “You don’t have to go.”

“Sweet Pea, I want to go. Trust me when I say that I don’t agree to things out of perceived obligation.” I touched his face along his jawline. “I would have said ‘no’ if I didn’t want to go.”

“Good to know. I’m excited for you to see everybody outside of school. We’re really different.”

“So far, you aren’t so different. And that isn’t a bad thing.”

“Get ready so we can get this shitty day over with,” he said, smirking and leaning against the doorway of the bathroom.

When we got to school, we instantly garnered unwanted dead-head and Serpent attention. Toni and Fangs were waiting just after the metal detectors for Sweet Pea and when they saw him wait until I got through, Toni looked puzzled while Fangs looked pleased.

“Sweet Pea, do you have a death wish?” Toni asked, gesturing at me.

“No, but I’m tired of pretending I don’t know her because of what some Ghoulie may or may not do.” He smiled at me and looked to Fangs to back him up.

“Dude, I told you to hang out with her outside of school, not broadcast your friendship to everyone.” Fangs facepalmed and then checked the time. “Let’s get to Phillips’s and hope that he doesn’t do another pop quiz. I don’t want to have to think about how many layers deep the narrative in Frankenstein is.” We all laughed and walked to class.

When I first saw Sweet Pea in class last year, I thought his sitting on top of the desk was one of the rudest things I’d seen a student do to a teacher. Over time, I came to realize that unless the desk was modified or he was allowed to sit in a lounging way, Sweet Pea’s legs were too long for most desks. Not to say that he didn’t sit on top of the desk to piss some instructors off, because he totally did, but for the most part, it was out of necessity. When he sat in his chair at the desk next to me, where Phillips had put him, I was really surprised. He caught me looking at him and threw me a cheeky grin.

Some time, and five really difficult questions on a pop quiz, later, Toni slipped me a note written on a torn slip of paper.

Are you and SP a thing?

I looked at her and shook my head. She slipped me another note.

You’re coming to the quarry tonight not as a date?

I wrote: He asked and I told him yes. I figured I’d find out if it was a date tonight.

She smiled and nodded. When she turned her head back to her book, I caught myself smiling at her concern. We’d never spoken very much, but I couldn’t help but like Toni. She had a very laidback presence, but was very outspoken about injustices, inequities, and feminism, which I very much appreciated. Too many things went unacknowledged, so it was nice to know someone knowledgable without them being someone that shoves their knowledge down anyone’s throat.

In the middle of world history three periods later, I received a text from Melanie asking to talk in the ground floor women’s locker room. My stomach turned because I felt like it could be a trap, but it could also be Mel checking in on me. She was the type of person to ignore gang politics to empathize with people who were on the outs, especially if one of those people had been her friend off and on since seventh grade. I replied that I would be there in five minutes.

I finished my quiz and asked Ms. Preever, fairly loudly, if I could spend the rest of the period in the nurse’s office. She nodded and as I turned out the door, I nodded at Sweet Pea, who’d popped his head up when he heard me speak. I stepped down the stairs and entered the locker room hesitantly.

Melanie was sitting on a bench in the middle of the lockers and from my quick scan of the room, I didn’t see anyone else lurking in the shadows. She looked up at me and hugged me, seemingly relieved.

“I’m glad you came. You didn’t see anybody follow you, did you?” She asked with a touch of dread weighing on her words.

“I didn’t notice anybody. What did you need to talk about?”

“I just wanted to see you and make sure you knew that even though we aren’t allowed to officially see you, Jas, Axel, and me. We all are still here for you. If you need anything. We love you and though the Ghoulies’ official stance is one of animosity, we are-” Melanie tried to hold back her tears to get through her speech, but they willed themselves down her face. I sat next to her on the bench and reached my arms around her, trying to comfort her.

“Thank you, Mel. I love all you guys too. I just needed out.” I looked at her and wiped the stream of tears off of her right cheek. “I couldn’t be a runner or handle the things that you all have to be okay with doing to be a dead-head. I just couldn’t.” I felt like I should be crying with her, but for some reason I was calm and ready to run.

After a few moments of Melanie sniffing and pulling herself together, I heard the clump of a few sets of boots come down the hallway and creak the door open. Pistol Pete rounded the corner with a couple of his loyal, larger, and senior Ghoulies. He smiled and slipped a brass band over his knuckles.

Melanie breathed sharply in surprise and stood to put me behind her. “No, I was just talking to her. I initiated the contact. It wasn’t her fault,” she said, fearful and trying to breath through her stuffed nose. To me, she added, “I didn’t know, I swear.”

“I know, Mel. It’s ok. This has been coming since a long time before I defected.” I saw Pistol draw his face into a wry smile and nod at his guys. I brushed around her, facing Pistol head on. The two giant young men grabbed my arms and held me in place. I glanced over my shoulder and asked, “will you wait until afterward to drive me home? I doubt I’ll be able to go back to class.” She nodded once and stepped back around the lockers.

Pistol took no time to begin punching me. The brass broke the skin in my face above my eye and my vision was blurred by a stream of blood. I didn’t get time to adjust before I felt a blow to my side. It knocked the breath out of me and I felt a sickening crack. Pistol must of heard the noise, because he hopped around in a circle excitedly before driving his fist into my stomach. I caught my breath once before Pistol sent one last blow from his unprotected fist across my face while I was hunched over protecting my chest and gut with the upperhalf of my body, as well as I could with the unwavering hands of the significantly larger men holding my arms back.

Pistol stepped back and said, “Drop her.” His goons let me go and I sunk to the ground, hitting my head on the bench on my way down. Pistol stepped forward and snatched a hold of my chin, bringing my eyes to his face.

“We’re done with you. Do whatever you want with whoever you want, but know that if I find out any of my Ghoulies are talking to you, or so much as look at you in the hall, they’ll be out too.” He stood. “Now, Thomas will be driving you home.” Pistol gestured at Melanie and she hesitated, crying and looking from me to him. She caught my eye and I shook my head, silently pleading with her to leave me. She followed Pistol and one of the other Ghoulies out.

The last Ghoulie, Thomas probably, grabbed my backpack and bent over me. He wrapped his arm around as much of my large waist as he could and roughly pulled me up. I stood and gasped at the stabbing pain in my side before I was distracted by how lightheaded I was.

“We’re leaving through the fire door. No one will see us that way. Let’s go.” Thomas reminded me of Sweet Pea, when he was speaking in his low, cold voice. I wondered if this Thomas guy had anyone that he used his real voice with and then I snorted that I was trying to empathize with one of the people who had just taken part in savagely attacking me.

Thomas and I made it to his shiny, antique roadster in amazing time considering how much I wanted to lie down and never get up again. Thomas dragged a blanket out of his trunk and spread it over his seat. He looked at my actively bleeding face and pulled a towel from his gym bag. He walked over to where I was sitting and held the towel to my face, much to my initial disgust. When I smelled that the towel had been freshly laundered, I pressed into his touch. He grabbed my hand and put it on the towel, pressing it tighter against my skin. He let go and closed my door, getting into his side of the car.

“Please don’t bleed in my car. I just got her back from the shop.” He said quietly, starting the roadster into a rumbling purr and driving off. I told him to drop me off about a block from the trailer park and I walked the rest of the way.

When I got inside Hog Eye’s trailer, I went into the bathroom and found Eli’s first aid supplies. I cleaned out the cuts on my face and pulled my shirt off, looking at the swollen welts on my ribs and my abdomen. I didn’t see anything else to clean, so I stripped and took a shower. When I got out, I noticed that none of my stuff was in the living room. I wanted to collapse on the floor in a fit of hysterics, before I thought to go back to the room Eli had promised me and see if everything was there.

I found a note on the door to my room that said: It’s all yours. I moved everything in too. Sorry if you have to rearrange. - Eli

I opened the door and found the space entirely transformed. It was small, but a full-sized, fully made bed was set against the wall atop a frame of milk crates. There was a shelving unit, also made of milk crates, in the corner where Eli had unloaded my books and knick knacks and a small desk sat under the large window, a vase with three pink peonies welcoming me home.

I felt a wave of lethargy and fatigue wrack my body, so I shut the door and quickly changed into comfy, non-constricting clothes. I squeezed the water from and fluffed my hair with my towel. I left the wet towel, Thomas’s bloody towel, and my bloody clothes on the floor, when I found myself unable to resist the call of the bed anymore. I sunk under the covers and passed out.

I woke up to a weight on the bed beside me, my face being dabbed with something hot and wet. I peeled open my eyes, slowly, and saw that Eli was sitting on the edge of the bed taking care of the cut on my face. He looked at me and smiled sadly.

“Hey kid, sorry to invade your space, but I got a call that I should come home.” I brought my eyebrows together in confusion, feeling the tension in my face as I did so. Eli chuckled and threw his head toward the desk in the corner. I looked over and saw Sweet Pea sitting in my desk chair looking over at me from whatever he’d been working on.

“Why? How-” I said, trying to sit up but finding myself out of breath with the pain that coursed through me when I did so. He stood and walked over to the other wall, closest to Eli and I, and leaned against it, crossing his arms, clenching his jaw, and scowling.

“I heard at lunch that people were freaked because the women’s locker room was covered in blood. When I didn’t see you anywhere, Fangs, Toni, and I walked over there and Toni checked it out. She found your phone and brought it out to us. I knew the Ghoulies had done something, so I buzzed over here and saw you on your bed through your window, when you didn’t answer the door.” Sweet Pea sounded angry, but I couldn’t tell if it was anger at me for being hurt or at the Ghoulies for taking their revenge. He broke his stance to set my phone on the small stack of two milk crates by the bed, that functioned as my bedside table.

“He called me and waited until I could unlock the door for him.” Eli said, a touch of humor in his voice amid all of the worry that he was exuding.

“It hasn’t been too long has it? I mean me sleeping?” I asked, worried that it would be like a movie and a week would have passed.

“It depends on when you got home, but no. It’s a little past 6.” Eli said, patting my hand. “Are you hungry? I have stuff for breakfast food. I remember you saying that it was your favorite. Or I can go get a malt from Pop’s.”

“A malt and some curly fries would be amazing. I have some cash in my wallet in my backpack.” I said, smiling as well as I could with the swelling to the right half of my face from Pistol’s last punch.

“I’m not taking your money. I’ll be back soon.” Eli bent over and kissed my forehead before leaving. “Sweet Pea, walk me out.” Sweet Pea slunk off after him and I worried that I’d be alone again.

After a few moments, I heard Eli’s pickup roar to life and leave. Just afterward, the front door was closed and locked and the clunk of boots neared my room. Sweet Pea stood in the doorway and huffed as he looked me over.

“What’d they do to you? How’d they get you? I thought you were going to the nurse.”

“A friend of mine asked to meet me in the locker room to tell me that she and a couple of my closest friends were still there for me. While we spoke, Pistol Pete and two of his lackeys came in to settle everything. She didn’t know they were coming and I knew that if I didn’t take the beating, something worse would come later. These two huge guys held my arms while Pistol took shots at me. He told me it was over after he’d finished. So I’m officially out and the Ghoulies won’t have anything to do with me again.”

“It can’t be that easy.”

“It wouldn’t be if it was the Serpents, but the Ghoulies don’t really give a shit. They aren’t a family and their ranks change all the time. I have no doubt that I’m out. I’ve seen it happen this way, many times before.” I stopped and watched him run his hands through his hair anxiously. “What’d Eli say to you?”

“Oh you know, 'watch her, don’t touch her’ and 'touch her and I’ll kill you’. The usual protective dad stuff.” He laughed and stepped farther into my room. “Then he took my order and left.”

“At least you’re getting food out of all of this,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“That’s true. Feel free to get beaten up more often so I can try out the entire menu,” he said, with a coldness that bothered me.

“Sweet Pea, come here,” I said, moving over to the cold side of the bed and patting the space I’d just left for him. He looked at it for a second and when I thought he wouldn’t come I added, “Please. I-” I broke then. Everything that had happened since I’d seen him in history and all of the things that I had been stuffing down recently bubbled to the surface and erupted.

I hardly ever bothered to cry. I’d never seen the point because it didn’t seem worth the lack of energy I felt after doing so. I preferred to cache the feelings away and move forward, even if the act of doing so made forward progression nigh impossible. The fact that I couldn’t stop myself from crying now told me everything I needed to know about where I was at emotionally. So much had happened in the last two weeks that my body simply couldn’t hold on to anything anymore.

Sweet Pea leaned against the pillows that he propped up on the wall and surrounded me with his enveloping arms. He held me and I cried. When I had unleashed everything I had stored up, I stopped crying, blew my nose on the tissue Sweet Pea passed me, and wiped my face on my sheets.

My ribs, two of which I was pretty sure broke under Pistol’s fist, ached and sent waves of throbbing pain throughout my body, taking my already shallow breath away. Sweet Pea adjusted himself so he sat behind me and rubbed my back to calm me down. I caught my breath again and sat enjoying the circles and serpentine shapes he was drawing on my flesh. When we heard Eli’s truck pull in, Sweet Pea scooted out from behind me and plopped himself back onto the desk chair, pretending he’d been there the whole time working on his homework.

“Food’s here,” Eli called, coming into the room with a delightful, greasy aroma emanating from the bags he was carrying. I took the drink tray from him and patted both sides of my bed so they both sat down to eat with me. Sweet Pea hesitated until Eli nodded his permission. I found myself hoping that Sweet Pea wouldn’t always look to Eli for permission to do what he and I both wanted him to do with or for me. That would be a huge deal breaker.

We ate and played some card games. After a few games, Eli insisted that Sweet Pea go home and get some rest, to which I suggested that he go to the party at the quarry like we’d planned to do together. I wanted him to tell Toni and Fangs that I was ok and I wanted him with his friends so he wouldn’t do anything stupid to retaliate for today. He agreed and hugged me goodbye, under the close surveillance of Eli.

“I’ll make it up to you, next weekend, I promise,” I whispered in his ear during the embrace.

He pulled away, smirked, and said, “You’d better.” He nodded at Eli and left.

Eli walked him out and locked the front door after him. I snorted at Eli’s insistence on being a patriarchal presence. When he tried to walk into his room, I called him back in. He walked in looking proud of himself, until he saw my scornful face.

“I’m just looking out for you. That kid has a lot going on in his head and his home-life was not decent until fairly recently-”

“Eli, stop,” I interjected. “I appreciate that you are letting me live with you and I know you loved my mother, but you are not my dad. I don’t have one. And I don’t need you to try to tell me who I can and can’t let into my life. That isn’t fair to either of us.” I took a deep breath and concluded, “Sweet Pea is in my life and I am grateful for that. Don’t try to tell me who he is or where he came from. That’s for the two of us to discuss when we’re ready.”

“I’m sorry, Nyra. I didn’t mean to- I will try not to do it again.”

“Thank you. You know I love you, right, Eli?” I said, hoping that he wouldn’t rebuff my conciliatory admission.

He smiled and brought me into a hug. “I love you too, Nyra.” He backed up and looked at me in concern. “Do you need anything before you go back to sleep? Ice pack, tea, water?”

I shook my head and he left me, alone, to fall back into a fitful sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra comforts Jughead and exposes her gift to him. Then she takes Sweet Pea to her secret place where she tells him about her gift and proves it. At the end of the night, they both go to Pop’s and share a meal and some time with Bughead.

Two weeks passed without too much drama. My face was healed and my ribs were on the mend, but I hadn’t felt up for hanging out with Sweet Pea and he didn’t seem all that interested either. He’d been distant of late and I decided not to press the issue. He had a lot on his mind, Serpent-wise.

The week after I was beaten, FP Jones, the Serpent King, had been arrested for the murder of a Northsider from one of Riverdale’s most influential families, Jason Blossom. No one on the Southside believed he did it, but we did believe, when it was exposed, that he had helped to dump the body. He faced 20 years if he took a deal and implicated any of his fellow Serpents, and 40 if he let it all go to trial.

Jughead Jones, FP’s son, who I remembered seeing and interacting with irregularly at the now nonexistent Twilight Drive-In, had joined Southside High because of a social worker’s involvement in his case. He had a rocky start when he denied any of the Serpents’ hands in camaraderie, preferring to stick to himself rather than league himself with the Serpents. After he caught a beating similar to mine at the hands of some Ghoulies, he started sitting with the Serpents at lunch.

I had been slowly being welcomed over there myself due to Hog Eye requesting for my protection and Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea’s insistences that I was Serpent material. I still heard the occasional ruffled feather and “Serpent Slut” cast my way by Serpents and others alike, but Sweet Pea would shut them down thoroughly with a stare.

On the Friday of the third week of October, I sat down to lunch early with Jughead. We’d both brought our lunches from home and didn’t have to deal with the meandering line of people waiting for cardboard pizza and an apple like our friends did. I looked at him and smiled when he met my eye. I could tell he was upset about something and I decided to extend a friendly hand and see if I could do anything for him, or at the very least listen.

“Jughead, you seem more morose than usual. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. You know the usual. My dad’s in jail, my mom doesn’t want to see me, my girlfriend is having a hard time with the fact that I am looking into joining the Serpents for my own survival, and my best friend’s dad got shot by some hooded madman on the morning after the 75th jubilee. My life feels more Degrassi than Brady Bunch than I would like.”

I laughed lightly and said, “I get that. My new living situation is under scrutiny of my new social worker, I lost all of my friends really recently, I was beaten up for wanting out of the Ghoulies, I missed a date because of said beating and the guy I was supposed to go out with hasn’t made any signs of wanting to try again, and now I’m having an incredibly uncomfortable conversation with someone that I don’t even think likes me.” He looked at me and I smiled again, showing him that I was only kidding about the last part.

“You were with the Ghoulies and now you’re a Serpent?”

“I wasn’t ever actually a Ghoulie, I was just friends with people who became Ghoulies. I couldn’t stand the drugs and the beatings or murders that they committed so I tapped myself out. It helped that I started living with a Serpent. It smoothed the transition a bit.” Jughead raised his eyebrows and then smiled.

As he turned back to what he was doing before I showed concern for him, he elbowed his laptop and sent it careening toward the ground. Just as it would have hit the ground, I caught it and set it down gently in front of Jughead again, without moving from my seat on the other end of the table from him. No one seemed to see anything, but Jughead met my eyes in a look of shock.

I quickly scooted to his end of the table, on the bench across from him, and grabbed his hand. “Please, don’t make a scene. Yes, that was all me. And yes, I will tell you how I did it, but not here and not now.” I stopped and looked at him intently, trying to make him hear me. I watched him take a deep breath and nod.

He slid his phone across the table and said, “Will you give me your number? We’ll hang out tomorrow and you can tell me what the fuck that was.”

I laughed, grabbed his phone and made a contact. I texted myself on his phone and slid the device back to him. “Tomorrow works. We can work on our papers for Phillips together.”

“Sounds good. I look forward to it,” Jughead said, looking behind me to see that Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea had finally made it back for lunch. I pulled my hand from his arm and crunched some pretzels from my lunch while the others sat around us.

Toni sat next to me and asked, “What are you looking forward to, Jones?”

“Nyra and I are going to meet up and work on our papers for Phillips tomorrow.” Jughead said, stuffing his always hungry face with food.

“That sounds great! What time? I need to get some help on what to write about Montag’s motivations.” Fangs said, noticeably relieved. Jughead looked at me and I nodded.

“That’d be cool with me. We can all meet up at noon at FP’s trailer and work on them then,” I said offering up a space that wasn’t mine to offer, but hoping that it’d be okay.

“Everyone invited, Jones?” Sweet Pea asked, casting his eyes from me to Jughead.

“Of course, Sweet Pea. We’ll order in food and have an ol’ fashioned work party.” Jughead smiled and the table nodded, relieved to not have to go through another tedious paper alone. “We’ll still talk about those things right?” Jughead asked me, under his breath.

“Yeah, I can just tell everyone at the same time then.” I shrugged and ate the last of my sandwich. I watched Jughead take a huge bite of his food and then he spoke again.

“Sorry about that. And also thank you for earlier. For asking how I was and for the computer,” Jughead said, making a sincerely apologetic face.

“No problem, Jones.”

We all finished our food and started toward our respective classes. I noticed Sweet Pea lagging behind and scooted down the bench to sit in front of him. I waved the others on and they left us alone.

“Sweets, bio is waiting.”

“What do you and Jones have to talk about?” He said, seemingly oblivious that I’d said anything to him.

“I caught his computer mid-air and he wanted to talk to me about it I guess.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it definitely wasn’t a lie, though it didn’t matter because the hurt on Sweet Pea’s face made my insides turn.

“Right. Well, I’m not feeling all that well so I think I’m going to head home. Take legible notes for me please.” He stood and made his way toward the doors of the cafetorium. I had to do something or I was going to lose him.

“Sweet Pea,” I shouted across the bustling cafetorium. “Do you want to go somewhere with me? I know this place and I’d like to share it with you.” He turned, nodded curtly, and waited for me to join him. While we walked out, I felt the urge to take his hand. Much to both of our surprise, I did. I laced my fingers between his and we went to his bike.

“Where to?”

“Highway 16, mile marker 226. Theres a little service turn-in. You’ll park there.”

“If you want to murder me, why don’t you do it closer to home?” He laughed, patting my shoulder. He swept his leg over his Harley, stood it up and started it.

“If I want to murder you, I am going to make sure no one will ever find you. That’s something FP fucked up.” I smiled and we both laughed, as I wrapped my leg around him and got situated, placing my hands on his sides.

When we got to the alcove, I encouraged him to hide his bike just inside the tree line, as I did with my car to make sure it couldn’t be seen from the main road. He obliged and helped me off of the back of his bike. I stretched a little, having felt compelled to hunch over to protect my ribs when he hit a bump a little too hard. He was such a good rider that it had surprised me that he hit anything.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that bump. I forgot where it was in the lane. Are you alright? It didn’t hurt you too badly did it?” His concern surprised me. We really hadn’t seen much of each other since the night I was beaten up. I felt bad for being surprised and apparently showing it on my face because Sweet Pea looked down to the ground and continued speaking.

“I’m sorry things have been kind of awkward too. The last two weeks have been hell and I wanted to see you and tell you everything, but I didn’t want to stress you out when I knew you weren’t feeling well.”

I stepped toward him and brushed my fingers along his forehead, under his hanging bangs, and brought my hand to his face, gently holding it. He looked into my eyes and I said, “I’m sorry too. I should have checked in with you after FP, but I took your coldness at school as a hint to fuck off. I should have tried harder, but I just wasn’t sure if you wanted me to.”

“I did. I just didn’t know that I did.” He said quietly. He reached his hand up to mine on his face and held it.

“Come and see my place. We’ll both feel better when we do.” I pulled my hand from where it was sandwiched, took a couple of steps forward, and held my hand out to lead him to my secret place.

We walked down a gentle path that wildlife had carved before I’d followed it frequently enough to widen it. Where the path ended, a short ten minutes later, we came to my secret place. Deep in the Riverdale adjacent evergreen woods, was a plateau ringed by trees but completely clear of them itself. The only things inside the circle upon the plateau were a collection of rocks and boulders, the most striking of which was a boulder, smoothed by time, winds, and rains, approximately the size of a two-car garage. I led Sweet Pea to the massive rock and started to climb the familiar footholds as I had done every time I’d come here. I had to stop and catch my breath, as stealthily as possible, a couple of times before I managed to heave myself onto its top face.

“It really isn’t the full experience until we lie on top of Fezzik,” I said, breathing hard, as I looked over the side of the boulder, down at my friend who was not yet following me up. I noticed that neither Fezzik nor Sweet Pea looked as large when they stood next to each other as they did individually, which made me feel oddly satisfied.

“Fezzik? Like the giant from Princess Bride?” Sweet Pea asked, looking up at me.

“Exactly. It came to me one day while I was sitting on him and it just fit. Don’t you think?”

“It’s perfect.” Sweet Pea said, huffing as he pulled himself up the rock-face like I had. He heaved his long, spindly leg over the side and rolled a little to set himself on top of Fezzik. He sat next to me and lay back, his head in line with mine. “This,” he began, gesturing to everything around us, “is perfect. How did you find this place?”

“I ran away from home when I was around seven or eight. I walked along the highway until my feet hurt so much I had to stop. I pulled myself into that little alcove where your bike is and cried. The only reason I stopped crying was because something gently nudged my arm and breathed me in. I saw this magnificent silvery, grey deer with this impossibly large rack staring down at me. He turned away and calmly walked to the beginning of the trail and looked back at me, waiting for me to follow. I followed him to this place and to Fezzik and I instantly felt safe and loved.”

I looked up to the sky and a few tears willed themselves down the sides of my face into my hair. “I’ve come here anytime I’ve felt overwhelmed or alone and I just lie here on Fezzik until I feel better. Sometimes I talk to him and his friends over there, and the trees, and the sky, and other times I just let the silence fall around us.” I looked over at Sweet Pea, who was watching the clouds roll and I wondered what he thought of me. I wondered if he thought I was crazy or dramatic or if he was simply just enjoying the view.

“Sweet Pea?”

“Yes, Ny?”

“I need to tell you something. It’s what I am going to tell everyone tomorrow at FP’s but I want to tell you first so you don’t feel like the only reason you know is because I told the whole room.”

“Ok,” he said carefully, sitting up to give me his full attention. I did the same.

“I can move things with my mind.” I blurted it out, not feeling like using an unnecessary amount of words to say the same thing. Sweet Pea was taken aback and smirked before he saw how serious I was. His smirk dropped and he licked his lips before he drew his face into a pinched confusion.

“You have telekinesis? Like Carrie White or Magneto?”

“Yeah.” I grimaced and looked at him, trying to judge what he thought of me. I looked down at his tattoo, pulsing with his heartbeat. I resolved to show him. I closed my eyes and imagined moving the rocks around us to replicate his Serpent tattoo. He gasped and I heard him stand and walk toward Fezzik’s edge. I opened my eyes and stood beside him, looking at the new arrangement of the previously haphazardly placed rocks. I got every detail of his tattoo in the formation of rocks, the outline, the pattern of its scales on its belly and back, and both of its heads with their viciously whipping tongues.

Sweet Pea stood looking at the rocks for a while, breathing hard. I stepped back and sat down, feeling tired after having used my ability two times in one day. Whenever it was intricate, fueled by adrenaline or a strong emotion, or if I lifted something large, I felt the weight of it taken out of my energy.

Once, when I was little, I stopped a car from running over a sleeping dog in the middle of a rural road. I stopped the car in its tracks and moved the dog out of the way in one motion. The dog turned toward me and rushed over gratefully. I reached down to pet him and I fell forward, passing out in the grass in front of my family’s home. When I woke up, I was in my bed and my mom was hovering over me making sure I was okay. She denied having seen anything, though I knew she was lying, and told me that I had a wonderful imagination.

“How long could you do this? This is how you opened that safe and Hog Eye’s trailer that night.” Sweet Pea said, tearing me from my reverie and my mother’s company.

“Yeah. That’s how I unlocked both of those and I have been able to do it since I was little. The first time I can remember it was when I pushed this neighbor boy away from me. I pushed him through the fence and into the winterized pool in his backyard. I think I was four or five. He’d been terrorizing me and a few of my friends, lizards and other critters, and I was done.” I waited for him to turn around and look at me, but he didn’t. He stood staring at the Serpent in the grass. “I come here to practice as well as to decompress. If you look on the other side of the plateau, there is a huge patch of grass that isn’t as thick or green as the rest. That is where Fezzik used to sit. I moved him so he’d be more in the center and provide better skywatching opportunity.”

We both let silence fall over us as Sweet Pea gazed out to the Serpent and Fezzik’s old spot, and I prepared myself to clean up the rocks again. I imagined them all back in the places I had left them before, arranged by size and weight, waiting for me to manipulate them during a future visit. I watched them all return and I smiled at Sweet Pea, who watched every rock fall back into its respective place around Fezzik.

“So, you have a superpower. How many people know?” Sweet Pea said finally, after what felt like years.

“You and Jughead.”

“Wait, that’s it? Not even Eli?”

“Well I think that technically if the couple that had me before were to think about how they got crushed at the same time by a TV and a clock, they’d know too, but yeah. You and Jughead are it. And the only reason Jughead knows is because I caught his computer at lunch today. I thought about letting it fall, but I knew how important it was to him so I decided to do him a solid.”

Sweet Pea sat, cross-legged, in front of me. “And how many people know about this place?”

“Only you.” I looked up and looked him in the eye. I couldn’t read his expression. He reached out and tucked some stray hairs behind my ear.

His hand hovered for a second to the side of my head before he scooted closer, ran his fingers into the back of my hair and cupped his hand on the nape of my neck. He pulled himself closer and asked, “Is it ok if I kiss you?” I nodded and met his lips with mine.

The kiss was short and gentle. After it was over, he pulled back a little and rested his forehead on mine. I smiled and gently rubbed the tip of my nose against his. He giggled and the sound was so unexpected that I found myself laughing at it. We both burst out laughing. After we stopped, I wrapped my arms over his and brought him in for a hug. He laid his head on my shoulder and I trailed light kisses from the top of his head down to the crook of his neck. I laid my head on his shoulder and we sat in each other’s arms for a long time.

When the sun started to descend beneath the tree line, I tapped Sweet Pea’s side lightly.

“Are you hungry? I’d really like to go get some food with you if you’re down?” I asked, sitting up from where I’d been lying.

“I’m starving. You want to hit up Pop’s?”

“Sure. Some pancakes sound great right now.”

“Cool. Listen I don’t want to climb down. Can you just like levitate me down there?” Sweet Pea asked, smirking and licking his bottom lip.

“Careful or I’ll just push you down,” I said, throwing my legs down the face of Fezzik that I always slid down. When I reached the ground and cleared the spot, Sweet Pea followed, slightly tripping at the end of the fall.

I chuckled at his clumsiness and he swept up behind me and wrapped an arm around the uninjured side of my body. He proceeded to tuck his head between my neck and shoulder and mouthed my skin. I whipped around and pulled him in for a clumsy, playful kiss. When it broke, I patted his cheek and took off running toward his bike.

He ultimately won the race to his bike, but I stayed ahead of him for a long while.

“Damn your ostrich legs. I would’ve won if it wasn’t for those.”

“Please, you were gasping for breath because of your broken ribs. You would’ve beaten me easily if you hadn’t started injured.” Sweet Pea got on his bike and helped me on, lightly squeezing my knees with his hands when I was all set.

I spent the ride to Pop’s feeling every movement Sweet Pea’s body made as we wound through the mountains back to town. I got used to the way he moved and moved with him around corners and down paths, though steep inclines were still terrifying. I just kept thinking I’d fall off and then thinking that I couldn’t think that in the off-chance that my mind made it happen.

Pop’s was busy, as it was every Friday night, and Pop told us the wait for a table would be around twenty minutes. We were planning to wait outside when we heard a familiar voice call out to us.

“Nyra, Sweet Pea, come over here!” Jughead called through the noisy restaurant. I looked over and saw that he was sitting with his girlfriend, Betty Cooper.

I walked over and greeted them. Sweet Pea trailed, reluctantly, behind.

“Pop hasn’t taken our orders yet, you two wanna join us?” Betty offered throwing us a warm, genuine smile. I looked at Sweet Pea who shrugged his shoulders.

I smiled back and said, “I think we’d very much appreciate that. Thank you.” I scooted into the booth next to Betty and Sweet Pea sat next to Jughead. “I’m Nyra, by the way.” I extended my hand to shake Betty’s.

“I’m Betty. And you are Sweet Pea, right? Juggy’s told me about you guys.”

“We’ve heard about you too. How are things going on the Northside?” Sweet Pea asked, obviously trying to be pleasant though he was uncomfortable.

“Well a madman is attacking people and Juggy and I are trying to figure out who it could be.”

“That’s not my strong suit. I’m usually the one they call to go get the madmen after they’ve been found out.” Sweet Pea said, laughing nervously.

“Well, hopefully we need your kind of help sooner rather than later.” Betty smiled and took Jughead’s hand in hers. I watched and Sweet Pea noticed. He smirked and looked at me when my eyes danced to his. I blushed a little and grinned back.

“What can I get for you kids?” Pop Tate asked as he finally got around to our table through the slew of orders he’d delivered and taken while we’d been there.

“I’ll have a short stack of buttermilk pancakes, please.” I ordered first when there was a slight panic in everyone else who’d forgotten to even look at the menu. 

Betty, Jughead, and Sweet Pea ordered afterward and I pulled out a deck of cards to pass the time. I always had them in my backpack just in case it happened to be convenient to play.

“Bullshit, anyone?” They all nodded and I shuffled and dealt.

When we’d been playing for a while, Jughead asked, “So Nyra, did you sort out that thing with the guy you told me about?” He looked at me and smiled cheekily.

“I think I have, Juggy.” I said, returning his playful smile. I looked at Sweet Pea and saw that he was blushing a little. It was really cute to see a man so commanding in stature embarrassed by a question about something trivial. I felt a little bad, but not bad enough to not continue, “I made a move instead of waiting on him, which paid off.”

“Good to hear. I figured if anyone would get what or whom they wanted, it was you,” He said, lightly bumping Sweet Pea’s arm with his elbow and smiling at both of us.

“Three 2’s,” Sweet Pea said, trying to change the subject and I burst out laughing quietly that made Sweet Pea glare at me for a second. “She wouldn’t have had to ask that guy out if she hadn’t gotten herself beat up to get out of the first date they had planned,” Sweet Pea smirked at me.

“Bullshit.” I said, waiting a moment before flipping the top three cards over, revealing a two, and two fives. “And now you get to collect that enormous pile of cards.” He huffed and picked up the deck, which was most of the cards.

“Well it’s your turn now, Robertson. Tell us all how many threes you’ve got.” He smirked and plucked four cards from his deck. “I really want to hear it,” he said, leaning over a lot of the table to look at me closely. I mirrored him and pulled the one three that I did have to use.

I held it in front of my face and then dropped it to the table and said, “One 3.” He looked at me as if he was going to snarkily say I was lying, so I kissed his lips lightly before sitting down to shut him up before he collected yet another card.

He was surprised, but when I noticed Jughead and Betty’s faces, they looked happy for us. The food came right after that, so I collected my cards and put them away until we’d all eaten.

We had a pleasant meal and played a couple games of rummy before Sweet Pea signaled that we should go. I paid for the four of us, much to Jughead and Betty’s dismay, and we said good night.

“See you at FP’s, Jug. Remember to have your thesis done so we have somewhere to start tomorrow,” I said, waving to the cute couple who’d hosted us for the evening.

I found Sweet Pea on his bike and he looked at me like he was a little pissed off.

“What are you mad about?”

“Jughead knows now. About us.”

“And?”

“I wanted to keep this- us- as just us. Like Fezzik and your secret.”

“I’ll ask Jughead to keep it on the DL, but I don’t think it’s feasible to hide this from Toni and Fangs. They’re perceptive and it will be worse if they find out later-” I stopped. I realized suddenly that he had made this thing between us real. “So you want for there to be an ‘us’?” I asked.

He pulled me close to him, careful not to sweep my ribs, and said, softly against my lips, “I want you.” We kissed as gently and sweetly as we had the first time, but there was something more that both of us were feeling. I felt a pull toward him, but I resisted it. I didn’t want to make a scene.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra exposes her gift to the group, pool hijinks at the Whyte Wyrm ensue, and Nyra realizes, by flirting with someone else, how much Sweet Pea means to her.

“You’re not serious,” Fangs said, looking around at his friends’ faces, trying to gauge their reactions. “Like really? You think about it and boom?”

“I mean you’re weird, but this is a whole other level, Nyra,” Toni said, smiling her half-smile that she tended to do when she was nervous.

My friends looked at me as though I had said I could turn blue or that I was actually an alien, or, as the case actually was, that I could move things with my mind. I felt like a B-movie character trying to figure out how to prove myself with the limited, shitty CGI that the studio could budget for. I looked at all of them and sighed in exasperation.

“I saw it yesterday. She caught my laptop and set it back down without ever moving from her end of the bench.” Jughead tried to help me, but I knew I’d have to show them like I did for Sweet Pea.

I grabbed an open bag of Cheetos off of the kitchen table and threw it up in the air. The snacks flew out of the bag and started to fling into various directions as they fell. Rather than letting any of the cheesy puffed corn fall to the ground, I scooped them together and dropped the bag, with its entire contents, gently in front of Fangs, whose mouth hung open. Then I took one of the Cheetos and popped it in his mouth. As he crunched it, he started to grin.

Toni was less impressed. She grabbed the deck of cards off of the coffee table, where she was working on her paper, and said, “Pick out the ace of spades and put it in Fangs’s pocket.”

I laughed lightly and closed my eyes so I could imagine the card I was looking for. I opened my eyes with the image in my head and stared at the deck sitting on Toni’s open hand. The card slid out of the stack and fluttered in the air into Fangs’s breast-pocket. I snapped the pocket around it and sat down, feeling slightly lightheaded. Apparently I was still learning my limits and having moved all of the rocks in my special place, twice, yesterday was still taking its toll on me.

Fangs unpopped the snap and slid the card out of his pocket. He grinned and handed it to Jughead, who then handed it Toni. Toni looked at it and looked at me.

“I don’t get it. Did you fall into a vat of radioactive waste? Were you born to a family of witches? Did something happen to you when you were a child and your near-death experience kicked this all off?” Toni said. Her usual chill was replaced with a fascination that was slightly tinged with fear.

“I just found out I could do it one day. My mom didn’t believe me and I saw a few doctors but none of them said anything was wrong with me. My step-dad wanted me to go to a psych ward when I was around 9, but he and my mom died in a car crash before that could happen.” I looked down to the ground, feeling the tingle of a migraine coming on. “I don’t know. I was friends with those Ghoulies for a long time and they never knew about such a big part of my life, so I wanted to be honest with all of you. You seem like people I would be happy knowing forever and that starts with you knowing about this part of me too.”

“If we took you to Vegas, we’d never lose,” Fangs said suddenly. It was so random that most of us laughed. Sweet Pea stayed silent, looking at me from across the room.

“Thanks for telling us. It would have sucked to hide so much of yourself from the people you care about.” Sweet Pea shifted in his seat next to Jughead and then looked back at his computer. “Can we please get back to talking about Montag and what the hell is going on with the Hounds and the neighbor girl?”

I smiled at him and we all got back to work.

We’d all finished most of our papers by the time Toni needed to get to work at the Wyrm and Fangs needed to get home to help his mom with chores. Jughead wanted to work on the rest of his paper alone, in typical brooding artist fashion, so after helping clean up the mess we’d made in Jughead’s home, Sweet Pea and I were left outside the trailer alone.

“You want to finish your paper at my house and then go to the Wyrm? I know you’re meeting Toni and Fangs there later so if you want we can go our separate ways.” I said, hoping that I could eke out a couple more hours with him.

“You haven’t seen enough of me yet, huh?”

“Not even close.”

“I want to get some stuff done before I go to the Wyrm tonight, but I would love to have you join me there if you’re down.”

“That sounds great.”

“I’ll be by at 7 to pick you up.”

“See you then,” I said, taking and squeezing his hand. I turned and made my way to Hog Eye’s trailer. I pulled out my phone to check my to-do list and saw a few texts from Toni.

Toni: Sorry I was weird about you telling us about your magic.

Toni: I guess I didn’t know what to do w/ that info. I do think it’s cool, I was just surprised, you know?

Toni: Also, I wanted to let you know that I think SP might seeing someone. He was gone all night last night. He blew off Fangs and I at the Wyrm, which he never does. I think you guys would be better together than whomever he’s seeing tho.

Toni: Maybe we can change his mind. Wear that velvety gray tank, your blue flannel, that lacy bralette I know you have, those jeans that make your ass (lack there of ;P) look great, and your black boots. SP can’t resist a girl in flannel, even if he isn’t the most showy of flirts. It’s his Achilles heel.

I smiled and picked out the outfit that she’d put together. Had I known that I just needed to wear all of my favorite pieces in my wardrobe at the same time to make Sweet Pea hot, I would’ve done it weeks ago.

Me: Gotcha. I’ll see you when you get off of work. I am getting a ride with SP to the Wyrm. Fingers crossed :)

I wondered what Sweet Pea would think if he knew I was scheming to win his attention from myself. I laughed at the thought of fighting myself for him and then my headspace got a little weird with the sci-fi trope of threesomes with clones and I lost my train of thought. I checked the time and found that I had a little over two hours to wait before I went to the Wyrm.

Since I’d finished all of my homework at Jughead’s, I decided to get ready for my clandestine first date with Sweet Pea a bit early. After my shower, I towel dried my hair, got dressed, and accentuated my eyes with a smoky look. When I did wear makeup, I seemed to make it look presentable 95% of the time, which made me feel pretty accomplished. I popped into Eli’s room to check myself out in his full length mirror. I would never allow a mirror that size into my own space because of my fear, but I was glad that Eli had one for me to borrow because it let me look at myself from head to toe in the outfit that Toni had picked. I looked damn fine.

At 7, I heard the clumping of heavy boots on my stairs and opened the door to find… Fangs.

“Damn, girl. You look good enough to be on my arm tonight.”

“Glad you approve, dork. Where’s Sweet Pea?”

“He got hung up at home, but he’ll meet us in about an hour. Toni will be off then too. Until then, I think we can find ways to keep busy. Wanna hustle some old guys out of some money?”

“What did you have in mind?”

At the Wyrm, Fangs and I went to the back and played pinball. He told me to play with my actual pinball skills for the first game, and then he asked for me to show him how I’d play if I wasn’t trying to hide my telekinesis.

The first game went about as well as I’d expected it to, given that my hand/eye coordination was, ironically, seriously lacking. I scored a decent score and Fangs beat it handily on only his second ball. When we switched again, I played while imagining the ball going where I wanted it to. I watched it make its natural arc across the table and then it hit every bumper, went through every arch and through every tube, and I scored a high score, only about 100,000 points higher than the previous high score.

“Damn, Sweets is gonna be pissed. He spent like a solid month racking up those points to get a high score.” Fangs belly laughed and we both cracked up until we saw some good marks for betting on some pool. “You up for making some money?”

“Let’s do it. Oh, and if I pass out, don’t be alarmed, just get me some juice of something. It’ll get me back in working order.”

“Yeah, maybe just don’t get to the passing out point. I think between the two of us, we can beat those chumps without too much effort on your part.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence in the abilities that you haven’t even seen me possess yet.” I nudged Fangs’s arm and he wrapped it around my waist, showing me off to our opponents.

“You guys want to challenge us to a game or two? We could use some practice for when Sweet Pea shows up later,” Fangs said, exuding a confidence that filled me with a sense of unbridled determination.

“Just against you two, not the bean pole?” The older guy had a receding hairline and a gravelly voice that made me slightly uncomfortable.

“You got it, Tall Boy, just me and my girl here.”

“You’re on. 50 bucks?” The younger one was handsome and a senior at Southside. I’d seen him around in the cafetorium and knew that his name was Jax. But what I was getting from our interaction tonight was a lot of attention. He looked at me like I was the last caramel apple at the state fair and I found myself not shying away from his gaze. It was possible that I liked his attention because I could use it to our advantage. But it was also possible that I just liked feeling like the most beautiful person in the room; which was not a common occurrence.

“Each,” I said, smiling wider when I saw the men look at each other and then back to me.

“You’re on, sweetheart. Let’s do this.” Tall Boy racked up while Fangs and Jax got themselves and their partners cues.

“I’d like a long one, Fangs,” I said. “I know how to handle those better.” I shot Jax a look and smiled when he made a face back. This was going to be fun.

Fangs broke and potted both a striped and a solid ball. He chose to shoot and bag another solid before missing his next shot. Tall Boy bagged two stripes that were right next to each other and then missed his third, narrowly avoiding a scratch when the cue ball ended up on the edge of one of the pockets.

On my turn, I took off my flannel to be less restricted, and to flaunt my chest a little. I potted a solid and then struck a striped on my next shot. It was unfortunate, but that was how Fangs and I had talked about playing early-game, especially on the first game. The second was where I’d bring out the big guns.

“What an unlucky shot,” Jax said, leaning over and pocketing two stripes in a row. While he was lining up his third, he moved over to where I was standing and placed his hand on my lower back. “‘Scuse me, doll. I need to line up my shot.” I rolled my eyes at him and stepped back, knowing full-well he was trying to play with me as much as I was him.

After a few rounds of play, Fangs and I had two balls left and Tall Boy/Jax had one. Jax was up and as he readied his shot, he flicked his eyes and eyebrows up at me and hit. The ball went in the pocket and all he had to do was correctly call the pocket for the 8 ball.

“Right corner.” He sunk it and we all shook hands.

Fangs feigned discouragement and I said, “How about you two buy a round of drinks and we play double-or-nothing.” Fangs perked up and Tall Boy and Jax smiled at each other.

“It was too close for DON. But we will do the same stakes again,” Jax said, flashing a dazzling smile. “After a round of shots.”

Tall Boy ordered two shots of rum for each of us and we did them. Fangs racked up and I sat on a stool next to the table.

“You’re Nyra, right? The ex-dead-head?” Jax asked, sitting beside me.

I took a sip of Coke and said, “Yep. And you’re serially single Jax Shepard.”

“I just don’t like being tied down. And neither do you obviously. I thought you were with Sweet Pea. But Fangs called you his. So, are you just gold-panning or do you have a guy?”

I looked at him and smiled, hearing the crack of the pyramid of balls breaking. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I walked away and watched Fangs take his shot.

On my first shot of the game, right after Jax, I potted two balls and made it look like I’d just missed my third. I would have hit it straight on, but I willed the cue ball to the right at the last moment.

“Damn, just a hair too much spin,” Tall Boy said, with a bit of encouragement in his voice.

I shot a look at Fangs, wondering if I should turn it on, and he nodded. Fangs sunk three balls and left me in a great position with two pockets essentially guaranteed to us because of the placement of our colors. Jax did his best, but he sunk one of ours along with his and then scratched on his next shot.

I placed the cue ball in prime position to hit the last ball blocking a pocket and I figured if I made a big enough show, I could pull of clearing the board for us and make it look natural. As I was getting ready to shoot, Jax came close to me and looked at where I was heading.

“You might want to shoot a little right of that,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been shooting too far left all night. It’s okay though, we all lean one way or the other.” I chuckled and took his advice. It didn’t really matter because I’d already planned the trajectory of the cue ball.

I cleared the board and realized that I was in a bad position for hitting the 8 ball. I had one option, a bank shot from behind my back, so I decided to make it as sexy as possible.

“Middle right,” I called, sealing my fate. I popped up onto the side of the table and shot, making as big of a show as I could. The 8 ball slid into the pocket just right and it looked like the cue would follow it, until it curved off to the right again. “Ooh, saved by that spin. I think that was what’s called a goldilocks shot, boys.”

Fangs and I high-fived and went to walk away when we heard, “One more. Hundred each. We’re both good for it. Are you?” Tall Boy called to us and we turned on our heels.

Fangs and I looked at each other and nodded, showing that we were good for it by flashing the money in our wallets. We set up and played again. A small crowd had gathered around us, including Toni and Sweet Pea. I smiled at the two of them as I went into my final shot.

We were tied, four to four.

“What do you think, Fangs? Should I put these guys out of their misery?” I asked.

“If you think you can, go for it. I’ll clean up anything you leave behind.”

We smiled at each other and I ran around the table to peck him on the lips. “Kiss for luck,” I said, throwing Sweet Pea a quick glance to see if he thought it meant anything. He looked through me as if he was planning what he would do if he were in my place.

I set up and hit every ball that I meant to without needing to use my gifts. I took out two of them with ease, but the other two needed tricky bank shots, so I could avoid hitting our opponents’ balls. When I was left with the 8 ball, the cue ball was on the end opposite the 8. I looked for a path of least resistance, but of course I didn’t really find one. The only thing I could do was plan a route as a back up plan if my own skills weren’t good enough to finish the game and put Fangs and I up a 100 bucks.

“Back left,” I said ready for my shot. I took it and hit the walls between our opponents’ balls at the perfect angle. The cue ball traveled across the table and into the 8 with ease, but it was going quickly toward the pocket.

The audience waited with baited breath. It looked like I’d scratch, but the cue ball traveled into the corner of the pocket and bounced back into the field of play after the 8 ball slipped into the pocket. What was even more impressive is that the entire shot had been mine, no magic needed.

Fangs and I hugged and jumped up and down celebrating for a few moments before going to our opponents, shaking their hands and taking their money. We left the pool tables and found a booth to chill out in. Fangs and I slipped in both sides of the U-shaped booth and when Sweet Pea and Toni came over, Sweet Pea quickly slipped in next to me. Toni sat beside Fangs and shot me a proud look. We started talking about planning a movie marathon night so each of us could share our favorite movies with each other.

“Are we talking guilty-pleasure or all-time favorites?” I asked, dropping my hands below the table to readjust the way I was seated. I found Sweet Pea’s hand on the booth and dragged my fingers over it gently. He turned it up and slipped his fingers between mine casually, but secretly.

“That sounds like two separate days. One for guilty-pleasures and one for all-times.” Fangs said, excited by the idea of hanging out with his circle without the pressure of having it be Serpent-related.

“Or we could make it a series of nights and give each of us a specific night of back to back films and we have to guess which is the actual favorite and which is the one-” Toni stopped, looking at the handsome young man making his way over to our table.

“Nyralina, you seem to have left this by the pool table,” Jax said, handing me my flannel. I broke my contact with Sweet Pea to grab it from him and I realized in that second that my pocket was empty and my phone was nowhere to be seen. I felt my pockets on my pants and noticed that Jax was looking at me with some amusement.

“I found this too,” he said, flaunting my phone just out of reach. “But I think we should play a round of Mortal Kombat. If you win, you get your phone back and if I win, you get it back and I get a date.”

Sweet Pea stood up with a puffed up chest and went to grab my phone from Jax. He was livid, but I didn’t need him making a scene or outing us, since he’d been so adamant that we keep us a secret. I sighed, scooted out of the booth, and got between the two of them, before any punches had been thrown.

I placed my hand on Sweet Pea’s chest and said, “Sit down. He’s harmless.” Sweet Pea dropped his eyes to mine and drew his face into a scowl. He turned and sat down before burning an imaginary hole through Jax’s face with his intense stare.

“Let’s go fight,” I said, smiling at the man I’d been flirting with all evening.

Jax chose Subzero and I chose Scorpion. It was a classic match-up between two evenly weighted characters. At the end of two rounds, it was one to one. I hoped that I could pull another win so I would have an excuse not to see this guy when I was secretly seeing another. It would get too complicated too quickly.

I felt like Jax and being with Jax would turn into something I didn’t want really quickly. Where I’d built a friendship with Sweet Pea over the last year, I had just met and flaunted myself toward this guy this evening. Sweets had been very considerate and had even asked my permission before we kissed. However, Jax seemed like the type to be too taken with voracity or lust to care about their partner’s needs.

There was also the simple fact that while I found Jax aesthetically pleasing, as I had with Axel, the only person I had ever actually wanted to be with, with every fiber of my being, was Sweet Pea.

The third round of Kombat started and I played with an intenseness that I didn’t use in the rounds before. I realized that the stakes actually mattered to me and I refused to lose.

After about two minutes of furious button-mashing, I won by the smallest fraction of a status bar. The relief I felt coursed through me in a wave and I smiled at how it made me feel. I threw my hand out for my phone and as soon as I had it, I went back to the table. Sweet Pea scootched in toward Fangs and I sat in next to him.

After over two hours of talking and planning our movie marathon for the next weekend, I started to get tired. Between using my gifts, the shots of rum, and the fact that I hadn’t slept well the night before, I found myself wrapping my arm under Sweet Pea’s leather bound one and resting my head on his shoulder.

“You want to go home?” He whispered, trying not to disturb Fangs and Toni’s intense argument about faster than light travel.

“Yeah,” I laughed lightly. “I am ridiculously exhausted. Would you be willing to take me home?”

“Most definitely. I’m good with calling it a night. I got to see Tall Boy lose some of the money he stole from me last week.” He chuckled and I felt it rumble through his chest in a really pleasing way. “Toni, Fangs. I’m gonna take Nyra home and call it a night myself. I’ll see you guys tomorrow at the Serpent thing.”

“Okay, good night you guys. Thanks for an awesome time, Ny. We gotta do it again soon.” Fangs said. I propped myself up on my knees and leaned over the table and Sweet Pea to hug him goodbye.

“We will do it again sometime. As long as there’s money to be made,” I laughed, standing up and stretching a little. Toni scooted out of the booth and stood to hug me.

“We’ll have to hang out later. Talk about the power of flannel and all that.” We both chuckled and I drew her in for a second hug.

When we got to my trailer, I asked, “Do you want to come in? I wanted to tell you something.”

“Uh sure. Sounds good.” He followed me inside and waited patiently on the couch while I changed, wiped off my makeup, and brushed my teeth. Afterward, he followed me to my room and asked, “Nyra, what was it you wanted to say?”

“Did you think I forgot?” I laughed a little.

“Kind of. I don’t know what you had tonight,” he said, smirking.

“I assure you I am not drunk. I just wanted to tell you that I realized something flirting with that guy tonight. I haven’t ever felt like I do when I’m with you. I have tried to be with people before and it was just awkward. I didn’t get anything out of having sex with them and those I did have sex with expected me to grow feelings for them, but it isn’t that way with you.”

“You don’t feel anything for me?” Sweet Pea said quietly, sitting on the edge of my bed next to me.

“No, that’s not what I meant at all. I mean that this thing we have, that we are building, it is something that has a real foundation. You were my friend before anything else, so nothing feels awkward with you. Holding your hand or feeling you inadvertently

touch me gives me chills. You asked for my permission before you kissed me and I have never felt so respected by anyone before. I realized tonight that, and I should probably not be saying this since it will most likely scare you off, but I feel things for you that I never thought I would feel for anyone and I am so thankful that you’re in my life.”

We sat quietly for a moment before Sweet Pea said, “I knew about a week after I met you that I liked you. I had never felt like I could be with someone like I was with you. I was me and you just accepted me. It hurt that I had to pretend not to like you or know you because of our stupid friends. I am thankful for you too.”

He turned to me and smiled his full, dimpled smile. I felt the urge I was beginning to always feel when I was around him, but I felt like this time I could follow it. With his permission.

“Sweet Pea?”

“Yeah?”

“I have wanted to do something since you kissed me that first time. Can I do it now?”

He laughed through his nose once and said, “Yes, please.”

I looked at the door and shut and locked it and then I kneeled on my bed, wrapping one of my legs over his lap and settled on him as gracefully and gently as I could. I wrapped my right hand around his head and settled it on his nape. I used my left hand to trace the outline of his face and ran my thumb over his lips before I met them with mine. I kissed him, slowly at first, making sure that he was wanting to keep up with me.

When I was sure that I was in the clear, I traced his bottom lip with my tongue and his lips parted, letting me deepen the kiss. He let me have the control, but he was just as forceful with his touches with his tongue on mine and his hands on my body.

At one point, he accidentally grabbed my hurt side, and I let out a surprised gasp. He instantly looked at me with concern and his eyes told me he was ok with stopping if I needed to. I shook my head and continued kissing him.

Neither of us wanted to be the first to tell the other that we were desperately tired, but eventually we naturally stopped to take a breath. I giggled and rolled my head back with my eyes shutting on their own. He laughed at me a little, but afterward, he yawned.

“I should probably go,” he said, burying his head into my chest.

“If you need to,” I said, placing my hands on either side of his face and pulling him to look at me. “I totally understand, but I do have an extra toothbrush.”

He smirked and said, “if I stay, we have to actually go to sleep, because I have shit to do tomorrow. I know it will be hard to your hands off of me, but-” I interrupted him by trailing a line of kisses along his jaw, over his Serpent tattoo, and on to his collarbone, which made him catch his breath.

“Go brush your teeth and I’ll steal a shirt from Eli for you.”

When Sweet Pea came back, he was wearing one of Eli’s T-shirts and a new pair of boxers I’d bought for pajama bottoms. I laughed when I saw his long legs end with little pink and purple sharks chasing each other in circles, with little hearts all over.

“You were right, it is going to be difficult keeping my hands off of you,” I said, patting the portion of bed I’d left open for him.

“No one can resist the Sharks,” he said, humming the tune to the West Side Story Sharks and Jets song and snapping along with the beat.

“Go to sleep, dummy.” I said, kissing the tip of his nose before I turned off the bedside lamp. He wrapped his arm around me and we entangled our legs in the warmest, safest pretzel imaginable.

He nestled his head inbetween my neck and shoulder and whispered, “Good night, Nyra.” He kissed my collarbone and my shoulder and breathed me in deeply.

“Good night, Sweet Pea,” I said, wrapping my arm over his and lacing my fingers between his. I dragged our hands up to my mouth and I kissed the place where his thumb attached to his hand. I tucked our hands under my chin, matched my breathing pattern to his, and fell deeply asleep in no time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyra, close to death from a flu, picks up the Serpent Trio after the raid on Southside High. Back at the trailer, Nyra and Eli talk and Nyra learns why Eli has been weird around her and hostile to Sweet Pea.

On a Tuesday in mid-November, I came down with a bad flu. I divided time between holding my head in my hands while sitting on my bed and running to the bathroom to retch the already empty contents of my stomach. Eli was concerned enough to go to the store and grab me saltine crackers and electrolyte-infused sports drinks.

When he came back, he helped me make the floor of the bathroom more comfortable; he swept, swiffered, wiped down every inch of the bathroom with Clorox wipes, and spread out a tarp underneath a blanket that he stretched out for me. He helped me in the tight space and set up a mountain of pillows for me to lean against.

“Are you sure you’ll be ok here on your own? One of the Serpents would gladly come and help you out, I’m sure.” Eli asked, concern in every muscle of his face that made it contort into a tight scowl.

“I’ll be okay. I don’t want them to get sick too. I already texted that I would kill them if they tried to help me,” I laughed, trying not to move my head from its place on the pillow against the wall.

“Call me if you get worse. I’ll have no problem finding someone to take over for me tonight.”

“Go to work, Eli. I’ll be ok.”

“I love you, kid. Call me if you need anything.”

“Love you too!”

I waited until he left the trailer and I heard his truck pull out of the driveway before I curled into the fetal position on the floor and scrolled through my phone on random social media sites. When my phone was close to death, I plugged it in and put my laptop in front of me on the floor and turned on Friends. I wasn’t paying attention to anything other than trying not to puke or groan from the pain that being so sick made me feel. I fell asleep sometime after that.

I woke up to the sound of my phone. I was surprised to see an unknown number calling me and I got a bad feeling in my gut that, for the first time in 24 hours, wasn’t related to something clawing its way out of me.

“He-hello,” I gulped, trying to keep myself from retching.

“Ny, I’m sorry to call, but I was wondering if you’d be willing to come to the Sheriff’s station and pick Fangs, Toni, and I up?” Sweet Pea said in a voice that was mixed with apology, frustration, and tiredness.

“As long as you explain why you’re there… I can be there in probably 30 minutes?”

“That’s perfect, thank you,” he said, before shouting to someone on his end. “Fogarty, don’t bother your mom. Nyra will be here in a half hour or so.” He dropped his volume and spoke to me again, “Thanks again, Nyra. We’ll see ya soon.”

I stood up after hanging up on him and puked in the toilet bowl. I looked at myself in the mirror and almost puked again. My hair was matted to my head, stringy and oily from sweat. The skin under my eyes was a pale color and my eyes were red from retching. I knew my fever broke sometime last night, but that doesn’t mean in any way that I felt better. My ribs were throbbing something awful and I felt like it was an impossible task to raise my arms above my head to take my shirt off so I could pop into the shower.

I used my gift to get myself naked, which hurt a lot less than if I had tried to do it myself; it was fully worth the headache I’d pay with later. I got into the shower and cleaned myself to the best of my ability, opening my mouth under the running water to rinse my mouth of its constant taste of bile.

I used my gift again to get dressed, dry my hair, and brush my teeth twice. I thought about whether it would be safe for me to drive my friends home, but decided I would give Sweet Pea the keys when I got to the station. He was a good driver and though I was apprehensive to let anyone touch my car, let alone drive it, I trusted that Sweet Pea would respect my baby. He’d had a couple opportunities in the last month to prove that he was trust-worthy.

When I got into my car, I turned the keys and buzzed to the station. I found that only focusing on driving to pick up my stupid friends in the late afternoon sun was a great way to avoid being sick when I went around the corners, or over the devilish speed bumps in the station’s parking lot. I parked and walked toward the front door, stopping at the base of the daunting number of stairs.

I found the act of climbing the concrete stairs an impossible task. I huffed and looked for a place to sit. When there wasn’t a bench anywhere, I sat on the stairs, leaning my body against the pole to the handrail, narrowly avoiding getting gum in my hair. I felt faint and my fever was returning with a vengeance.

I checked my phone and laughed hysterically when I realized that I was sitting on the steps to the Sheriff’s station holding myself up against a grimy, gum-coated pole to pick up my gang-member secret boyfriend and our mutual friends, nursing a wicked headache and flu, on my birthday.

“Happy seventeenth, Nyra,” I said to myself, finding Sweet Pea’s contact and calling. He answered on the first ring.

“Hey are you almost here?”

“I am here if you are able to come to me,” I forced out, trying not to cry. Understandably, I was a little overwhelmed. And Sweet Pea could hear it.

“Oh shit, Ny. We’ll be out in just a second. Hold on, okay.” He hung up. I dropped my hand with my phone and slumped over, fighting to keep my eyelids open.

I heard the familiar clunking of multiple sets of boots coming out of the building and then I heard one set’s pace quicken. Sweet Pea rushed over, crouching next to me and picking up my clammy, feverish hand.

“Nyra! The fuck? You shouldn’t- Had I known that you were this sick- Shit, dummy! What were you thinking?” Sweet Pea said frantically. Fangs and Toni joined him and they got me to my feet.

“You called. I promised you I’d pick up every time,” I said, passing my keys to him. “Now you get to drive us all home. Good luck making this up to me.” I pulled a strained smile. “Oh and I expect that you will all tell me why the fuck you were at the station for the second time this month.” I gently poked Sweet Pea’s healing bruise under his left eye that Archie Andrews had delivered about half a week earlier.

When we were all in the car, Sweet Pea turned to me and said, “It wasn’t anything we did this time. It was profiling. They raided Southside High this afternoon and grabbed anyone with Serpent merch.”

“Yeah and then they had nothing to book us on and just ended up wasting our time,” Fangs spat before adding, “And yours. Thank you for being such a great friend, Nyra. If it was me and I felt like you probably do, there is no way I would have picked up these losers.” We all laughed a little and I waved my hand to push their worries away.

“Eh, I can’t imagine a way I’d rather spend my sick day,” I said, reaching around my seat in the front and squeezing Fangs’s knee with my hand.

“Well when you’re able to eat something, we owe you dinner at the very least.” Toni said, patting my shoulder.

“And that movie marathon that we never ended up doing. I expect that shit to happen now.” I smiled and stretched my seat back, settling my head in the space between my seatbelt and my headrest.

“Most definitely. Sweet Pea, are we going to leave now? You can stare at Nyra some other time.” Toni teased. I laughed under my breath. I knew how much Sweet Pea hated that Toni and Fangs were finally starting to catch on to us.

Sweet Pea huffed and started my car. We glided home, after the brief discomfort of the speed bumps in the parking lot. Fangs and Toni went home after I insisted that I’d be okay with just Sweet Pea’s help.

When we got inside, Eli was walking into the kitchen with a tray that had a small vase of fresh peonies and a hot bowl of chicken soup. He set the tray he was holding on the countertop, flipped toward the door, and pulled me into a tight hug. He was shaking and I figured that my absence had startled him. I nodded into his shoulder and he sighed.

He broke the embrace, stepped back, looked at Sweet Pea with a glare and then turned his attention back to me.“I was just wondering where you went. I went into both the bathroom and your bedroom to tell you happy birthday. Text me or something next time. I was really worried,” he said, kissing my forehead. “Wow, your fever is bad. How’s the nausea?”

“The worst of it seems to have passed. Did you know that Southside High got raided? Any Serpent got pulled into the station and got grilled. How shitty is that?” I said, trying to change the subject of conversation off of me. I did not feel up for having anyone freak out over me.

“I just found out like twenty minutes ago when I called Tall Boy and he said that you were picking the kids up.” He stopped and looked at me. He ran his hand along the side of my face a couple times before he took a deep breath and said, “Would you actually sit on the couch real quick? I need to tell you something that I found out recently. It’s been on my mind for a few days now and I have decided to be selfish and tell you.”

“Uh sure I guess.” I grabbed Sweet Pea’s hand and he helped me get to the couch. I felt a wave of lethargy wrack my limbs, but I kept as alert as I could. I’d noticed that Eli was skirting around something and my curiosity was finally going to be satiated.

“Does he need to be here?” Eli asked, shooting a look at Sweet Pea.

“No, he’ll leave you two alone.” Sweet Pea said coolly. He kissed my cheek and whispered, “I’ll be right outside. Text me when or if you want me back in.” He shot a look at Eli and I shook my head at their animosity. It came seemingly out of nowhere a few days after Sweet Pea spent the night with me.

When the door shut after Sweets, Eli turned to me. He looked at me and looked down to the ground. “I should have picked a better time. When it isn’t your birthday and your friend isn’t waiting outside and when you aren’t sick, but if I don’t say this, it is going to be hell on me.”

“It’s fine, Eli. What is it?”

“Nyra, I got the results last Friday to a test I had done.” He stopped and when he didn’t continue, my mind ran over all of the meanings that that statement could have. He could have gotten bad news or have an incurable disease or he could be dying. Then I thought about all the things that would mean for me. Losing another positive support person, having to move, losing yet another person that I loved, having to leave everyone I knew… I felt my heart start to race and I stood up to go to the bathroom.

I spit in the sink while the toilet was flushing and then brushed my teeth with my gift while I washed my hands. I wet my face, took a deep breath, and prepared myself to join Eli back in the living room. I walked back out there and Eli was holding his head in his hands. I sat down and I reached my hand to Eli’s knee. I left it there and he placed one of his hands on top of mine. He looked up, gulped, and began again.

“I should have prefaced this with the fact that when I knew your mom, I was much like Sweet Pea is. I was just as angry, just as volatile, just as willing to do anything to prove myself as more than a product of my surroundings. I never wanted to leave Riverdale or the Serpents and I see all of that in him. My home life was shit, much like I know his has been, and I am worried about you being around someone like him. Like how I used to be.”

“I appreciate your concern, but he is a better man than you’ll ever know. Get to talking about what you meant by test results or I’m leaving,” I said firmly, trying to keep from getting angry at the audacity of him trying to parent me again.

“I promise that I am going somewhere with all of this. I met your mom one time when I was escaping to the Northside for a party. She was nice and kind and listened to me. She saved me from getting my ass kicked by the hosts of the party and we exchanged home numbers, planning to meet again. We started seeing each other and it got really serious really fast. I felt like if there was ever anyone to fall in love with, it was her. She was beautiful and loved me.

Around that time, I started getting in deeper with the Serpents. I was drug running every week night that she was too busy to hang out and I beat up guys from the other gangs every other week. The Serpents were really violent at that time and deeply entrenched in drug-trafficking and cleaning up after ourselves. Your mom was the one bright spot my life had and when she would pick me up from jail or peel me up off the floor after I binge-drank, I fell harder for her. Eventually though, it got to be too much for her. She called it off with me just after she graduated after I said that I’d never leave the Serpents. She left for college and better than me and what I could give her and I never thought I’d see her again.” He took a deep breath through his mouth, sniffling, and a few tears dripped off his face.

“When she visited for your grandpa’s funeral with you in tow, I was happy for her and for you. You had the greatest woman in the world in your life and I knew that she probably picked a great guy to have you with. When I found out that your dad wasn’t in the picture I was really shocked. I spoke to her about it, but she told me to leave it alone, because you weren’t mine… When she died and you came back to Riverdale to live with your grandma, I asked the Serpents to keep an eye out for you. You visited the Wyrm and set up roots here. I watched you grow up and I saw so much of her in you. But I also had this haunting thought that I saw a lot of myself in you too. I tried to work out the timing of everything but it didn’t add up for it to be true. I dropped it again, until you came to live with me.”

“Nyra, the way your eyes crinkle when you smile, the color of your hair, the fire that you live with, despite everything that’s happened to you, and that you don’t let it burn you up. That is why I stole some of your hair and ran a paternity test. And that is why I have been so weird. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you that I’m your- I-” He started sobbing and I pulled my hand back from him.

“You’re my father.” I let the words sink in and then I stood.

“Eli, I love you and I am sorry you’re in pain but I cannot do this right now. It’s my birthday and I’m so sick I am considering going to the hospital for an IV. There is a beautiful, unselfish, respectful human being outside waiting to spend the rest of the day, and maybe my life, with me and I cannot be here with you.” I went to leave before I turned back and saw him watching me leave. I felt so angry and I thought about what I wanted to say to him; I decided that now was my time to say it.

“What you did was beyond a betrayal of my trust. If you’d asked me if we could get tested, this would have been different, but blindsiding me like this is just un-fucking-believably selfish. I might have wanted to know this if you’d been an adult about it and hadn’t tried to drag Sweet Pea through the mud to try to get me to understand why you hate him.

You fucked up and I can get over you stealing my hair to answer your questions about me, but trying to make my relationship with that amazing man parallel the fucked up one you had with my mom- that I can’t forgive. You don’t even know him and if you took the time to try, you’d know how much of a better person than you he is. How much he loves the people in his circle and the lengths he would go to unselfishly protect and defend his friends. The lengths he would go and has gone to help me through my bullshit so that I can be with him in the moment the way that he deserves.

He deserves better than he has had and he wants it. He’s bled for it and that’s a lot more than I can say for you. I will not stand by and listen to you talking about Sweet Pea like you know anything about him and I hope that I have made myself clear about that.” I took a deep breath and prepared myself for my next statement.

“If you don’t extend the effort to get to know him, that’s on you, but if you ever try to interfere with us or slander him in any way, I will leave you alone again. Believe me when I say that my mom cutting you out will be nothing compared to what you’ll have to endure when you see me everyday and I pretend not to know you, because over time, I won’t know you.”

I snatched my car keys, phone, and wallet from the table. I then grabbed my backpack from the floor. I brought two large blankets from the top of my closet to me, ignoring Eli’s terrified face as he watched the blankets float through the air to their places under my arm, and slammed the door shut behind me.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sweet Pea and Nyra visit their secret place. Later that week, once Nyra’s flu is gone, a night at the Wyrm exposes their relationship.

“You ok?” Sweet Pea asked, grabbing the blankets from me and pulling me into him. I wrapped my arms around him and looked over his shoulder, seeing that all of the windows were open. He’d heard everything.

“You up for visiting Fezzik? I need to get away for a while.”

“Yeah, definitely. It’s been a while since we’ve been up there. Here, hand me your keys,” He said, taking my keys and unlocking my side of the car first. Then he got in and settled into the driver’s seat, which was still set up for him from driving earlier. “I need to call Toni really quick. We were supposed to hang out later.”

“I understand if you need to be here with her. I can just sit in here a while and take a nap until I am ready to go back in there.”

“No, I want to be here with you. I just need to figure out a way to get out of hanging with Topaz.” He bit his lower lip and then said, “I’ll just text her. That way I don’t have to respond when she asks why.”

We sat atop Fezzik for hours between the blankets I’d brought. We watched a movie on my laptop and afterward Sweet Pea rubbed my back while we looked at the stars. I didn’t feel sick from the flu and my heart stopped hurting as soon as he started touching me. I felt whole just being in his presence at school or the Wyrm or with our friends, but being with him alone in my favorite place was close to perfection.

“Nyra, I know you know I heard everything. And I just wanted to say thank you. You really didn’t have to defend me. I mean you got angry for me, on my behalf. I can’t think of a time when anyone else has done that.”

“I’m sure Fangs and Toni-”

“No. They haven’t. They don’t defend me for being angry or impulsive. They tolerate it. They would rather that I accept what others say about us without getting aggressive. They’ve had so many arguments with me about my temper and who I am to others, but you haven’t. You get it. Like you understand that I am not mad to just be mad. I’m angry because I’m so fucking tired of people putting me in boxes and refusing to see-” His voice broke and I heard him trying to breathe through his body’s desire to cry.

I sat up and moved so that I was sitting behind him with my legs out straight, stretched around his hips. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him down on to me. There was nothing I needed to say or do, but be there for him in that moment. He lay back into me and rested his head on my shoulder. He pulled my arms tighter around him and sobbed. I dropped my head and nestled it next to his. I kissed his cheek and the taste of his tears settled on my tongue through my parted lips.

We sat there with my arms around him and his face rested next to mine until long after he’d stopped crying. He let my arms go and sat up, turning around to look at me. He took me in and made a sad smile.

“Some birthday. You picked up your loser boyfriend and friends from the police, almost died from the flu, had it out with your roommate who you found out is actually your father, and then you comforted your aforementioned loser boyfriend when he started crying like a little bitch.”

“Or, it was a really good day because I got to be there for my best friends, turned a year older, found out I wasn’t a fatherless loser, and got to spend honest and genuine time with my amazing boyfriend who happened to cry when shit got too real, like we all do.” I smiled and ran the fingers of both of my hands through his hair and massaged his scalp. He hummed happily and ran his fingers up my arms.

“I don’t care if I get sick. I need to kiss you.”

“Nope, I refuse. You’ll have to save your kisses for two or three days until we know that I’m not contagious anymore.” I said pulling my head out of his reach and lying back.

He chuckled and crouched over me with his hands on either side of my shoulders looking down at me. “Odds are I’m already infected with your plague and I’ll be dying in the bathroom here soon. You aren’t going to kiss me before I go?” He asked, dipping his head to my chest and kissing my left collar bone.

“Not if it means that I would actually infect you by doing so. I will not be the reason that you die, dummy. You’re going to do that to yourself,” I said, trying to ignore how much I wanted him. He ran a line of kisses up my neck, slowly and methodically. He had figured out, in the few weeks we’d had together, how to get me hot and the fucker was doing it when I couldn’t do anything about it.

He popped his head up to read my face; he knew he had me where he wanted me and he smirked, flicking his tongue along his lower lip. “You’re going to kill me by making me wait.”

“Die away,” I said, pushing him off of me and sliding down Fezzik to the grass below. “And if you’d just clean up up there, I’ll meet you at the car.”

“Ha! You don’t have the keys. You can have them for a kiss!” He shouted at me. Our usual playfulness was a great respite from the shitty day we’d both had.

I turned around to face him and saw him standing on top of Fezzik dangling my keys from his fingers. I laughed loudly and held my hand out. I pulled my keys to me and shrugged at him when I saw him pretend to pout. I turned and went back to the car.

On the Saturday of that week, I was invited to a function at the Whyte Wyrm. I was pleasantly surprised by Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea, who’d organized a low-key celebration for me. The cake was unmarked and they didn’t sing, but they each whispered happy birthday, which was absolutely perfect. Jughead had been invited but he skipped due to his nursing a broken heart, after Betty broke up with him out of the blue last week before he ran the gauntlet.

I sat at the bar and spoke with Hog Eye jovially, until he let Toni off of work early.

Eli had apologized to both me and Sweet Pea for what he said and how he’d been acting. He said he couldn’t lose me and that he would try to get along with Sweet Pea as long as he was in my life. That had been enough for me to decide to forgive him for the paternity test. I insisted that he not let him being my father change anything, but he wanted to pursue officially adopting me. I figured that doing so would appease him as well as put me in good standing with my stupid social worker, so I agreed to let him do so. We never spoke about him seeing what I could do and I knew that it was a conversation that we’d have when things cooled down more.

Toni and I grabbed drinks and went over to the pool table where Fangs and Sweet Pea were playing. We sat there a while, watching them until we decided that they were punks and challenged them to a game.

“You think you two can beat us?” Fangs said, patting Sweet Pea on the back. “My boy is the best in this place.”

“Well, my girl has skills your boy can’t even imagine,” Toni boasted, wrapping her arm around my waist and pulling me into her flirtatiously. I smiled, looped my arm around her shoulders, and kissed her cheek.

“I should go easy on them, babe. I don’t want to bruise their little egos.” I bit my lip and shot a coy look at Sweet Pea.

“Oh you’re more than welcome to use whatever skills you have at your disposal. You still won’t beat us.” Sweet Pea said, pulling his signature smirk.

“Rack up, let’s go,” Toni said, pulling down cues for the two of us.

Fangs broke and secured solids for the boys. It was rather unfortunate because there were no shots for Toni to take that wouldn’t lead to a hitting one of their balls before one of ours, which by house rules was a scratch, because of the way that all of our balls were blocked.

“I see you guys are trying to be tricky with your balls. We’re on to you,” Toni said. We both giggled, feeling the effects of the three shots of rum that she’d put in our Cokes.

The boys sneered and Sweet Pea potted four of their seven remaining balls. It was my turn and I bagged three, which was a really respectable turn by most accounts.

“Awe, tough luck. You got as many as we have left,” Sweet Pea jeered, smirking and watching Fangs take his shot. Fangs missed and play went to Toni.

“Watch it or you might not have any balls of your own at the end of the night,” I said, smiling a coyly. The alcohol had given me confidence in spades and I felt almost giddy as I watched Toni pocket three more stripes before play went to Sweet Pea.

We were pretty evenly matched three to two at this point. When Sweet Pea took his shot, I made myself look busy, but fucked with the course of the cue ball, making him pocket it along with his target. He threw me a look and I couldn’t help but giggle.

“What? I can’t help that you used too much force,” I said, lining up my shot with the cue ball that I got to place where I wanted to. I pocketed our final two balls and called the pocket on the 8. I just missed and decided to let it go.

“I want to play the next round. I’ll play losers,” I heard Jax say, in his smooth, buttery tone. I looked at him and he sent me a huge smile. I went back to my stool and took a drink of my rum and Coke and he followed me over there.

“So,” he began. “Anyone step up to the plate and take you out? Or is whomever you’re waiting for still pussyfooting around?” Jax threw me a dazzling smile and I saw Sweet Pea look over, visibly tensing.

“Well that’s definitely none of your business, Shephard.”

“I thought if you wanted, we could go out to Pop’s or Alejandro’s and get a bite to eat. I have been thinking that if you need exclusivity, I’d do that for you.”

I huffed and left Jax to play my turn. I wondered how no one had finished the game yet and called a pocket. I sunk it and celebrated with Toni before seeing that Jax was still looking at me.

“Jax looks gorgeous tonight, as always. Did I see a little flirting going on?” Toni said, glancing from me to Jax and back.

“He said he wanted to take me out and that he’d be exclusive with me if that’s what I want.”

She smiled and said, “Well you’re single, why not flirt with the obnoxiously attractive guy who is obviously in to you? I mean he flirts with you at lunch too, doesn’t he? I saw him at your locker the other day drooling.”

“You’re quite observant. Also, you’re bi, so why don’t you go enjoy him?”

“Oh no, don’t try to get out of this one. The boy is practically begging to go out with you. Stay here,” Toni said, walking over to Jax, who was setting up for his game against the boys.

“Nyra, come here.” Toni waved me over and I followed, sweeping my fingers over Sweet Pea’s hand as I passed. “She would be the perfect partner for you. She carried our team.”

“She carried the team that last time we played too. What do you say, babydoll? Want help me stomp the boys again?” Jax asked.

“Sure, but I’m breaking.” I bent over the table, wagged my butt a little and fully displayed my cleavage to Sweet Pea and Fangs when I broke. “What do you think?” I whispered in Jax’s ear. “Solid over there on the right or more in the middle?”

Jax stepped in closer and pressed in behind me, whispering, “That striped one on the left looks like fun. Plus,” he paused, putting his hands on my waist and turning me a little. “You hit it from this angle, you can get two.” He stepped back away from me while I shot.

I sunk the two we’d discussed and then I missed a third, releasing play to Sweet Pea, who was distracted by me leaning against the stool that Jax was straddling. Jax noticed him staring and threw his left arm over my shoulder.

He brought his mouth to my ear and said, “Are you using me to make your boyfriend jealous?”

“Maybe, would it be a problem if I was?” I asked, blushing and turning to look at him.

He smiled and said, “Nah. Doesn’t bother me.”

I looked at Sweet Pea and watched him chalk up his cue, clenching his jaw tightly.

“He means a lot to you?”

“I love him.” He smiled at me and nodded, kissing my cheek, really close to my mouth, before he went to the table to play.

Jax went around the table and made Sweet Pea move so he could take his shot. Sweet Pea came over to me and said, “What are you doing?”

Toni came over, threw her arm over my shoulder, and said, “There a problem with a young woman flirting with an attractive young man?”

“Not at all, unless that young woman is seeing someone,” Sweet Pea said, looking at me and clenching his jaw.

“It’s really good that I’m not then, huh?” I said, sliding off the stool and standing next to Jax. He wrapped his arm around me.

“Where should I try to shoot next, doll?”

“The red one. Kiss for luck?” I asked. Jax flicked his eyes toward Sweet Pea who was sending us a dark glare from his scowling face. Jax chuckled and kissed me.

It wasn’t like any kiss I’d shared with Sweet Pea. There was no spark, no feeling, and no real desire on my end to keep the action going. He dipped his tongue in my mouth and I pulled away. I didn’t need to go there to piss Sweet Pea off.

Jax shot the red one and a blue one and then scratched trying to get the green. Fangs took over and shot me a look that made my stomach twist. We both knew I’d gone too far. I glanced at Sweet Pea and he wouldn’t meet my eye.

I pulled Jax aside and said, “I can’t do this anymore. I thought it’d be fun because I thought I liked him more than he liked me, but-”

“But his heart just broke when I kissed you? Yeah I saw.”

“I have to go. Will you entertain Fangs and Toni?”

“No problem. Good luck with your guy,” he stopped and chuckled. “I was wondering who’d gotten to him. Now I understand.” He smiled and patted my shoulder.

I turned and stood in front of Sweet Pea, holding my hand out. He looked at me and my hand and then said, “It’s your turn. You’d better go.”

I handed my cue to Toni, grabbed my coat and wallet, finished my drink, and left. I was worried he wouldn’t follow or that I had done irreparable damage to what we were. I found myself on the verge of tears as I sat in my car waiting. I hung my head and focused on breathing. I heard the door handle on my side of the car being pulled, but I didn’t look up.

“You know you fucked up, right?” He said, standing in my door close enough for me to feel the warmth of his body.

“Yes.”

“Why? Why did you do that?” He was hurting and I knew that there was nothing I could say that would help, but I also knew that I had to say something.

“I don’t understand why you still want us to be a secret and I was acting out instead of talking to you about it.” I looked at him briefly before casting my eyes to the ground again.

He sighed and said, “I wasn’t ashamed of you or anything. I just wanted you to myself without their jokes or comments.” He tucked two of his fingers under my chin and pulled my head up to make my gaze meet his. “But I seem to have forgotten that you’re you and you love those losers as much as I do and that they won’t scare you off.” He smiled and leaned down to pull me into a kiss.

This kiss was different than any of our others. It was hungrier and I was confused by that until I realized that we hadn’t actually shared any kisses since well before I’d gotten sick.

The last we’d had was when Sweet Pea came to my trailer freezing and bloody from his fight in the rain with Archie Andrews. When I opened the door, he stepped inside and sunk to the floor. I crouched beside him and checked him out, making sure that he wasn’t horribly injured. He flicked his eyes up to my face and pulled me into an angry, scared, and hurt embrace that I broke as soon as I could.

It had scared me seeing and feeling him act out in such a primal way. I stood up to get him something to drink and get over my fear of his touch, but he grabbed my hand and kept me where he was. He asked me to promise him I’d always answer his calls and that I wouldn’t decide I didn’t want him without talking to him first. I agreed on the condition that he promised the same. He did and then he stood and was gone as mysteriously as he’d arrived.

“Where are you right now?” Sweet Pea asked, pulling away from our kiss.

“Sorry. I was thinking about the last time we’d kissed. When you came to my house that night after the rumble. It scared me.”

“I’ve been meaning to apologize to you about that. I don’t really remember what happened except both of us promising to answer every call and to have good reason to break up with one another. I don’t remember kissing you, but I am sorry that I scared you,” he said, his eyes cast to the ground.

“Sweet Pea, you were terrified that whole week. When Archie pulled that gun on you, you wound up so tight I didn’t even know how to help you. When you kissed me that night, I felt every emotion you were feeling and I have never been that connected with someone. You didn’t scare me; it was that I was completely powerless to help you.” He looked up and nodded before looking down again. “Can we just agree that that night and what I did with Jax tonight were learning experiences and that they won’t happen again?”

Sweet Pea looked at me and smiled his wide, dimpled smile. “Most definitely.”

“Good, then can we go back inside and fuck around with our friends until we have to go home?” He smirked and we went back inside the Wyrm.

“Hey, the love birds are back. Glad to see you made up. So were you going to tell us, like ever?” Fangs said, jabbing Sweet Pea in the arm.

“Careful, Fangs. Their relationship might be too delicate to talk about,” Toni said, crossing her arms.

“Shut up. You’re just mad that the two people that carry your teams in pool are together. You just don’t want to lose to us continually.” I said, grabbing Toni’s waist and dragging her over to the Mortal Kombat cabinet.

“Looks like the power of flannel came through, huh?” Toni asked, causing both of us to laugh.

We spent the rest of the night playing pool and arcade games in the back of the Wyrm. I saw Jax one time the rest of the night and he sent me a thumbs up with a flashy smile. I returned both motions and then turned my attention back to Sweet Pea, who was neck and neck in Mortal Kombat with Fangs.

I took a moment to myself and thought about how much had happened in the last month or so; FP arrested, a fight on a bridge in the rain between the Serpents and the Bulldogs, Jughead inducted into the Serpents and dumped the same day, and Southside raided by the police. It was a lot but we all made it work and I was glad to have the people I loved around me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the closure of Southside High, the Young Serpents plan a movie marathon and Nyra and Sweet Pea sleep together and exchange the “three little words”.

“Nyra, you know where you got transferred to yet?” Fangs asked me, tossing fries in his mouth at an amazing rate.

“No, where did you guys find out?”

“It was on the email the superintendent sent out to all the parents. It has everyone’s names and where they were transferred to. Hopefully you’ll be like us and go to Riverdale High.” Toni said, rubbing Jughead’s back as he lamented seeing Betty everyday at school.

“Can I see on one of you guys’ phones? Mine’s in my backpack and I’m really not in the mood to bend over and get it.” Toni handed me her phone and my heart raced. If I was going anywhere other than Riverdale High, I was going to be pissed.

We heard the door bell ring and everyone else looked to see who’d joined us at Pop’s. I was scouring through the list of students until I finally reached the R’s. Nyralina Arabella Robertson. Riverdale High. I breathed out heavily and then clenched my sides. I don’t know how I kept forgetting that I was beaten to a pulp a week prior, but I did and I kept hurting myself.

“Hey, lovely. Scootch in.” Sweet Pea said, motioning toward the wall.

“Oh no, you don’t get to fucking ignore me for a solid week and then come in with a ‘lovely’ and make me scootch in. You sit on the side of the table that wants to talk to you right now,” I said, glaring at him.

“Nyra, please don’t make me sit by Fangs after he’s already eaten diner food. His ass will kill me.”

“I guess I’ll be dating a ghost after you die and have to stick around to make this up to me,” I said, not falling for his puppy-dog eyes. I wanted to break, but he’d hurt me more than the Gauntlet had when he refused to even talk to me afterward.

“Sweet Pea, don’t make her move. I’m impressed that she’s even sitting upright after what the guys in the Gauntlet did to her. Just put on your gas mask or rebreather and sit the fuck down,” Jughead said, throwing me a smile.

“Yeah speaking of the Gauntlet, how’s your hand? After it met my face, I think it was more hurt than I was.” I said, feeling my face mockingly. Fangs, Toni, and I laughed. Jughead flashed his swollen knuckles.

“You should have asked Sweets for tips on how to properly wear brass-knuckles when you took his place last minute,” Toni said, throwing Sweet Pea a look.

“Sorry that I couldn’t punch my girlfriend in the face or stand by and watch her go through all of that bullshit,” Sweet Pea said, sitting back in the booth, crossing his arms, and clenching his jaw.

“She’s not mad that you weren’t there during the Gauntlet, idiot, she’s mad because you weren’t even there afterward to hold her hand. Shit, dude, you picked things up off the ground for me but you weren’t around for the girl that has been carrying your ass since October,” Fangs said, shaking his head.

“Sweet Pea, would it have been better if she hadn’t asked my dad to let her do the Gauntlet instead of the Dance? I think this way was much better and at least she had the opportunity to garner respect. She took the beating better than I did,” Jughead said, reaching out and taking my hand with his hurt one. I smiled and squeezed it gently. Sweet Pea looked at our hands and stood up to order his food from Pop.

“Anyway, where are you headed, Ny?” Toni asked, rolling her eyes at Sweet Pea.

“Thankfully, I’ll be joining all of you at Riverdale on Monday. You going to talk to Betty this weekend, Jug?”

“I don’t know,” he said his head bent back and his throat exposed. His crown started to fall so I tugged it back on and held it for him until he popped his head up and said, “Thanks, Ny. And to answer your question, I’d rather have a movie marathon with you guys.”

“Horror, comedy, horror/comedy?” I said, hoping that I would finally get to introduce them to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Zombieland or any of my other favorite horror and slasher films.

“Isn’t life bloody enough for you, Nyra? Why always with the horror suggestion?”

“Because they’re fun and the old, campy ones are cringe at their finest.”

“Says the girl who watches Charlie Chaplin films on repeat when she’s upset,” Sweet Pea said, sitting back down at the table with a strained smile.

Pop Tate came over with a large chocolate malt, a basket of curly fries, a basket of regular fries, a bacon cheeseburger, and an orange creamsicle shake that Sweet Pea had directed to me. When Pop left, I rolled my eyes and stood up to go to the bathroom.

When I came back, I found the whole table shifted and Sweet Pea was sitting in next to Toni and patting the seat next to him. I grabbed the creamsicle shake from its place on my old side of the table and sat on the other side, between Fangs’s legs. I sat back into him and he wrapped his arms delicately around my waist.

“Finally I have you all to myself,” he said, pushing his head out over my shoulder and stealing a drink from my shake.

“Did you just talk to me or the shake?” I asked, laughing at his satisfied face after he swallowed.

“Both, my sweet.” He turned his head and planted a kiss on my cheek, grinning at Sweet Pea’s face.

“What’d we decide on movies for the marathon? Oh and Toni, you’re off this weekend right?”

“We decided on Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, Emperor’s New Groove, Zombieland, and The Incredibles, though probably not in that order, and yes I have the entire weekend off thanks to that paper that I don’t have to write for biology anymore.” Toni said, smiling and sending Sweet Pea a weird look. He scooted over to give her more space.

“So when does it start and where are we having it?” I asked Jug. Fangs was still drinking my shake, so I handed it to him and grabbed the extra malt tin, savoring every bite of the food that wasn’t mine.

“Well, your trailer is the only one empty right now and I don’t see why we should put it off. I’ll plan the order of the movies based on mood and think of some drinking games to play during the later ones.”

“Sounds good. I have one for Zombieland already.” I said, smiling as I heard Fangs slurping the last of my shake down his seemingly vacuous gullet.

“Ooh, what is it?”

“Well, it’s two technically. You take a sip of your drink every time a rule of survival is mentioned or a Twinkie is mentioned or described. Those ones get you good and wasted quickly, believe me.”

“Nice. So 3 o'clock at your place?”

“As long as you guys bring snacks and booze,” I said, climbing out of the booth to go clean up my messy house.

When I got home, I looked at the messy front room and imagined everything in its proper place. I watched as everything floated into organization and I changed the trash. I looked at my phone for the time and found that I had three more hours before any of them would be over. I found myself uncomfortably alone. I sighed and checked the bathroom, Eli’s room, and my room. I cleaned all of them thoroughly while I sat on the couch watching an episode of Parks and Rec.

After two more episodes, I heard a knock on the door. I stood and opened it. When I saw it was Sweet Pea, I considered leaving him outside before I turned and went back to my seat on the couch.

He went to close the door and I said, “Wait, take the trash out first, then you can come in.” I floated the full bag of trash to him and when he returned, he shut and locked the door. He paced for a while before stopping and kneeling in front of me, taking my computer off of my lap. I had honestly never seen him look so small.

“I’m sorry that I was an asshole. You didn’t deserve the silent treatment, no matter what I thought you were becoming a Serpent for. I was just so worried that Eli was right about me; that I was making you into someone you aren’t and that you would never leave this town, because of me.”

“I don’t know why you ever thought Eli was right about anything, especially when it came to you.” I stopped and brushed his bangs into their signature loop on his forehead. “I’m not a Serpent to be with you; I already had you. I’m a Serpent because I wanted to join the family that I chose. And you not being there when I did hurt me, worse than the fists and feet that launched themselves at my body.”

“Then to add insult to injury, you didn’t visit me or text or call. I know you weren’t doing anything because Toni and Fangs and even Jughead checked in on you for me.” I patted the side of his face, before I continued, “And you can be damn sure that both of us are leaving this fucking town because I am dragging your ass with me when I go.” I heard Sweet Pea chuckle and met my eyes with a little twinkle.

Sweet Pea then sat up on his knees, waddled closer, spread my knees apart, and hugged my waist. He laid his head on my chest and even though it hurt, I felt myself ache for his touch. I missed him and I was mad at him, but I couldn’t get the thought of finally sleeping with him out of my head.

I raised my hands to pull him off of me, but instead, I ran my fingers through his hair and grabbed his face. He cocked his eyebrows and let go of me. I stood up and unwrapped myself from around him. I walked to my room and sat on my bed. Just when I thought he wasn’t going to follow, I heard the clunk of his boots coming down the hall.

“Just so we’re clear, I’m still furious at you, but I thought of something that we can do to make me feel a little bit better,” I said, pulling him in and closing the door behind him.

“Not that I am trying to change the subject because I’m so incredibly excited, but how are you doing so much with your gift today? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“I got bored over the holiday breaks and since you were busy drug-running for FP, Tall Boy, and your mom, and thanks for the heads up on that development by the way, I entertained myself. I pushed my limits and I’ve gotten really good. It takes a lot to tire me out now,” I said looking him up and down. For such a large person, he was continuing to look small while we spoke.

“You found out about Penny, huh? I should have just told you.”

“Which part? That she was your mom or that she was FP’s lawyer or that she was making you be a drug runner or that you and Jughead and the other young Serpents kidnapped your mom, took her across Sweetwater to Greendale, and cut her tattoo off of her arm? I mean you were one of the people that held her down. What the actual fuck?”

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall by my closet. He shook his head and I saw him shudder. I closed my own eyes, took a deep breath, and walked over to him. I ran my hands up his arms, across his leather skin, up to his shoulders. I popped myself on my toes and held the right side of his neck while I traced his Serpent tattoo with my tongue and kissed it.

I pulled away and continued, whispering in his ear.“You can try to hide things if you feel like you need to, but I’ll find out eventually and it’d really make me happy to know that you trust me enough to tell me yourself. I don’t want to find out when it becomes 'Serpent business’. I want to know when it’s yours.”

“Okay,” he said, running his right hand from my hand on his neck to my elbow. “I don’t know why I haven’t just told you any of that. Or why I couldn’t see you becoming a Serpent all this time. By the way, where’d you get your tattoo?”

I smiled and whispered, “Why don’t you find out by looking for it?”

I bit my lip and kissed him. Everything that I had been thinking about left my head as I pulled at him and he pulled at me. I unzipped his jacket and made it fly neatly over the back of my desk chair. I did the same with his hoodie, flannel, and T-shirt. I took a second to look at him before we continued.

I’d never gotten a chance to see him shirtless. He wasn’t the biggest fan of letting anyone see him without a shirt and for the life of me, I couldn’t see why. He was softer than some of the guys that we went to school with, but the idea of laying on pure muscle had never been appealing to me and it was easy to see that he was built, even if it wasn’t on the top layer. I smiled at him and when he looked away, I trailed a line of kisses down his chest and onto his stomach. I couldn’t resist blowing a raspberry and when he laughed, I met his eyes and kissed each of his cheeks.

“You’re really handsome. You know that, right?” He hesitated for a second looking down at himself and then pulled me in for a careful, passionate kiss. He scooped his arms around me and lifted my shirt over my head.

Truth be told, I wasn’t the biggest fan of not wearing a shirt either; but I trusted him enough to know that how much I weighed or the way that my belly hung would not be something that crossed his mind when he took me in. I thought the bruises from the Gauntlet might be a problem though, so I pulled the shirt from the ground onto the bed, so I could put it back on if I felt uncomfortable or if he looked too sad by seeing them.

“Wow, you’re beautiful,” he said, looking me over. “I’m still not seeing that tattoo though.”

“Hmm,” I laughed. “You’ll probably have to keep looking. But the real question is if I am going to have to pull five million layers off of your bottom half too.”

“You’ll have to find out, I guess,” he said smiling gleefully. I sat on my bed and pulled at his belt, his whole body looming over mine.

Once I got his pants down, I saw that he only had boxers left. I cast my eyes up to his face and said, “Thank you for not wearing a million layers h-” He stopped me when he leaned down, swept me in a kiss, and lifted me up to scoot me farther into the bed.

He crawled between my legs and leaned over me, like he had on Fezzik the night that I’d been too sick, and while I’d only ever felt small and submissive with the other partners I’d been with, Sweet Pea made me feel like I had an equal share of control, despite my being in a compromising position at the moment.

“This okay?”

Those two words made me so unbelievably happy to be there with him. I propped myself on my elbows behind me and whispered, “Yes, thank you.”

He nodded and we kissed for a long time, writhing together and feeling each other’s movements before I unbuttoned and slipped off my pants. He backed up off of me and scoured my legs for my tattoo, which he found on my right calf. I giggled when he kissed it and he smiled in his goofy, happy way.

“Now how often are you going to show that off?”

“Well, not as often as you show yours,” I said, poking his neck. “But a lot more often than Alice Cooper or Toni show theirs. Mine’s a good placement and don’t you try to tell me otherwise.”

“Alright, feisty, chill. Do you still want to- do you want to-” He blushed and I reached my hand up to his face.

“Dummy,” I said, planting soft kisses on his lips and over to his ear. “Please put a condom on and have sex with me before our friends get here.” I pulled away and we looked at each other for a moment. We shared a short kiss and when he turned back to me again a minute or so later, we were both naked.

After he finished and caught his breath again, he apologized.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“You didn’t get anything out of that and I… did.”

“It was our first time, dummy. I’m not expecting miracles. I’ve never gotten off to anyone but myself, so please don’t feel like you did anything wrong.”

“I’m willing to try anything next time if you think it’ll help.”

“Sweet Pea,” I said, propping myself up on my elbow and looking at the beautiful man next to me. “The fact that I wanted to have sex with you in the first place is a major thing for me. That isn’t something I’ve ever felt for anyone else. I think that the way I feel about you, made me into your body too and I hope that we can get more in sync, but what we just did, was in no way bad. I mean you did something so sexy by just checking in with me at every step.”

“I was hoping that wouldn’t kill the mood, but I wanted make sure you were okay with where we were.” I stroked his face with my thumb and kissed him gently.

“Thank you for that. And for this whole thing.”

“Thank you too, Ny. You think it’s too late to cancel on our friends?”

I popped up and checked the time. 2:55. I laughed and said, “Seeing as we have five minutes to get dressed and make it look like we didn’t just sleep together, I would say yeah.” I watched him sit up and start reaching for his clothes. “No wait, I’ll do it. Stand up.”

I dressed him and myself and made the bed in one fell swoop. I hid my trash can on the unpopular side of my bed and fixed my hair. Then we heard a knock on the door. Sweet Pea dropped his head on my shoulder and kissed my neck, ignoring the knocks.

“Nuh-uh, it’s showtime, mister. Let’s go,” I said, grabbing his hand and opening the door to find Jughead, Toni, and Fangs waiting with bags of food and drinks. I smiled and said, “Come on in everybody, the water’s warm.”

I was thankful that Eli had crammed such a massive couch and TV into such a tiny space.

We all arranged ourselves in comfortable spaces next to each other on the sectional. We had our own spaces without feeling creeped on by the people next to us. Sweet Pea and I agreed not to flaunt our relationship in front of the others, so he sat in the corner of the couch next to me, but not entangled around me like how we both wanted to sit to watch the films. Fangs sat next to me, Toni sat next him, and Jughead sat on the end in the lay-out part closest to the pile of food.

We decided to start with Psycho, but once Fangs realized it wasn’t American Psycho with a lunatic, naked Christian Bale, he shouted, “No color, no naked people, no sex. Next!”

We couldn’t argue with him so we moved on to The Incredibles. In certain spots I knew every line and I lay back against Sweet Pea reciting the lines in his ear until Toni said, “Nuh-uh. No love on this couch except between friends. Nyra, switch Fogarty spots.” I rolled my eyes and scooted over.

Fangs sat down and whispered to Sweet Pea and I, “If either of you want to cuddle, I’m so down.” Sweet Pea tisked his tongue and punched Fangs in the arm. I, however, smiled and pulled his arm closest to me over my shoulder and curled up next to him. Sweet Pea stretched his arm across the back of the couch and played with my hair for a while before Toni caught on and shut that shit down too.

A bag and a half of chips and a two-liter of soda later, The Incredibles was over and Jughead put in Zombieland. Toni stood and poured drinks for everyone while Fangs went to the bathroom.

Sweet Pea moved over next to me and whispered, “You want to steal Jughead’s spot? It’s easily the most comfortable.” I nodded and we moved over. I was in the corner of the couch and Sweet Pea and I received bad looks all around.

“Leave room for Toni, kids,” Toni said, moving Sweet Pea over and sitting between us.

“You just want the leg room, don’t you?” I whispered. When she nodded, I laughed and took a drink of what she’d given me. It tasted like candy, so I knew it would be the best thing I’d consumed for my liver to date.

“Ok, everyone listen up. Anytime there is obvious product placement, mention of a survival rule, or mention or description of a Twinkie, we take a sip of the drink.” Jughead explained, and I felt the tickle of Sweet Pea’s hand on my neck. I reached my free hand up and clasped his fingers in mine.

“Jughead, by your rules we are going to get very drunk, are you all ready for this?” I asked.

In answer, Jughead clunked three six packs on the table. “And one additional rule. Every time a new survivor is found outside of the main two guys, you chug a beer.”

About five minutes in to the movie, we were all about a quarter of the way through our drinks. At the half way mark, we were all pretty drunk and by the end, most of us were sloppy drunk. We all laughed heartily at the jokes and we all teared up when we thought Woody Harrelson was a goner, even though I’d seen the movie enough times to know that the core four made it.

By the time we put Emperor’s New Groove on, we probably should have stopped eating, drinking, and doing anything other than sleeping, but we surged on.

Soon, Toni and Fangs made a mountain of pillows and blankets and cuddled up together on the floor. Jughead intently watched the movie, trying not to pass out. Sweet Pea and I cuddled together on the section of the couch with leg room, under a blanket.

Sweet Pea’s hands were around me and I sat in front of him, leaning against him, between his outstretched legs. He kept whispering lines in my ear in his best Patrick Warburton impression and making me laugh.

He was actually really good at impressions and it made me wonder what else he was talented at that I would get to find out about him over time. It also made me inventory how much I really loved about him already. Then I realized that I still hadn’t told him that I loved him even though I’d felt that way for about a month and a half.

“What’re you thinking about, feisty?” Sweet Pea asked, leaning his head against mine and kissing my cheek.

“How much I love about you and how much I love you,” I whispered back.

“You can’t say that when I am not allowed to kiss you.”

“Well I just did, dummy, so you’re gonna have to deal.”

At the end of the night, Fangs and Toni passed out on the floor in their blanket fort and Jughead passed out mid-movie on the couch. Sweet Pea and I made sure everyone had a blanket, shut off the TV, and slunk off down the hall to brush our teeth and head to bed.

When we got to bed, neither of us felt boozy anymore and we curled up in each other’s arms in a way that felt safe and comfortable. We were silent for a long while, but Sweet Pea was kind of antsy. He kept moving.

“What’s wrong, dummy?” I asked, looking up at him.

“I feel like I messed up earlier.”

“How so?” I turned into him so I could see him better without straining my neck.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if you or the alcohol were talking so I didn’t say anything back to you when you said that lovely thing and now I am realizing that you were never drunk enough tonight to let the alcohol run your mouth…” He looked down at me, kissed me like he had the very first time, and said, “I love you, Nyralina Arabella Robertson.”

“I love you too, Sebastian Samuel Peabody.” He smiled at the use of his given name, safe in my mouth, and he tucked in next to me to fall asleep.


End file.
